Pet Hunter
by Komamura's son
Summary: A survivor that made a home out of a hotel finds a Hunter that isn't feral, though a bit of a troublemaker, but there is something more to this Hunter. Used to be a Oneshot, now a series by demand.
1. Chapter 1: The Pet

**So I was drawing one day, listening to an English dub of Tokyo Teddy Bear, and I ended up drawing this cover. I loved that adorable looking zombie and ended up coming up with a oneshot for it. It is a friendship fic. And the hunter is a zombie version of Shuuya Kano from Kagerou days and the OC is basically my sister-in-law's cousin.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead, or Kano. But I want that hoodie!**

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><p>It was the same dreary routine he's been going through since he's secured this hotel. He was lucky enough to find the whole ten story building to be free of the infected, well stocked in food, and virtually left untouched by any other kinds of life. Having a whole building to himself, he of course took shelter in the penthouse. But everyday he would get up, perform normal bodily functions, ration his food and water (which really wasn't needed, but old habits die hard) tune up an old acoustic guitar he managed to find to play as his means of entertainment. Take a bath, eat dinner, then hope rescue would come as he fell asleep.<p>

He was getting tired of the damn same thing, he wanted something different. But he knew that this boring routine was better than the paranoia and fear of making the wrong decision. The fear that something will rip him apart as soon as he opened a door. Hearing the claws and teeth scrape across the doors of a saferoom as he tried to sleep. The constant search for bits and scraps of food that would probably be rotten. But all that was in the past, no longer did he have to fear those things. The penthouse was high enough so that the crying wails of the infected would never reach him, giving him the sleep he desperately wanted. The stocks of food and water giving him much needed nourishment. And the best part, somehow the whole hotel still had running appliances, hot water, electricity and even gas. He had found the snowball in the Hell hole that the green flu had caused.

Life for him took a nice turn, but after a month of paradise, he got bored. He just wished he had someone to share all this with. Someone to talk to, to listen to him play, and maybe even share the bed with him. Although he knew it would be in a platonic way, hard to think of love when zombies are decaying just outside the building.

He sighed as he wandered through the floors of the hotel. Truth be told, he didn't necessarily check if all the rooms were empty, he simply walked through each floor and waited to hear any signs of activity from people, living or undead. So to pass his time, he began looking through rooms, occasionally finding stuff in them and looking through people's belongings without a care in the world. Although he thought against it, after finding a woman's... let's just say he thought it was a weird rubber candle. Though curiosity still entertained him, and kept him going for a bit longer.

When he looked through the last room of the fifth floor, he noticed that the room was an utter mess. Throughout the day, the rooms were kept nice and neat, except for rooms that had people in them before, but this one was torn apart. Like if a kid had a sugar rush and started running rampant in here.

The first thing he checked was the bathroom, hoping nothing was in it. After turning on the light, he scared himself by his own reflection. Choosing to not continue giving himself heart attacks, he began to leave. When he passed the bed, he felt a cold hand grasp his ankle. Of course, he freaked out and began pulling on the hand. Out from under the bed was a small hunter wearing a short sleeved black hoodie with three white dots on each side of the hood. The hood didn't hide his face much, but from what he could tell, the hunter's eyes were bright red, a scar went from below his left eye across his cheek. Dirty blonde curls were matted against his head. And even while he fought against this infected, the hunter kept a smile and did nothing more than hold onto the survivor.

After realizing that the hunter had no intention to attack, he calmed down and glared at it. The hunter let out a raspy chuckle and loosened his grip. "The hell was that for!?" He yelled at the hunter, expecting something to come out from it.

"...F-Fun..." To his shock, the hunter responded in a still raspy, hoarse voice.

"You... you can talk..?" He asked, the hunter nodded, showing that it didn't have much to say. "What's your name?"

"K... Kan... Kano." The survivor wondered if this hunter made up the name or was really named Kano.

"I'm Rudy, now you're not going to eat me, are you?" Kano shook his head, filling Rudy with relief. Somehow he managed to find a sentient zombie. "Well, why are you in this room?" The zombie shrugged and crawled back under the bed. "Wait, what're you doing?"

After a moment, Kano emerged from the bed with a ragged teddy bear in his mouth. Rudy couldn't help think that the hunter was adorable, like if it was a talking puppy. It was then he decided that he would treat the hunter like a friend/pet.

"Come on Kano, I'm taking you to the penthouse." Rudy smiled, he finally found a way to add some spice in his bland routine. The hunter gladly followed his lead out the room and up the many stairs to the penthouse. He didn't notice at first, but the zombie reeked of foul odor. "I think you need a bath..." Kano understood his words and walked over to the large bathroom, removing his hoodie on the way. Rudy was relieved that he didn't have to help wash him, seems the infected retained some memories of proper hygiene. He Kano left his dirty ragged clothing outside the closed door, taking the dirty rags, Rudy decided to throw them in the washing machine.

After pulling the clothes out of the dryer, and still hearing the splashing in the bathroom, Rudy decided that now would be a good time to play his guitar. He was thankful that none of his strings broke during his entire stay here. If one broke, he would have to leave out of his sanctuary just to get another string. Rudy sighed as he strummed the strings, feeling the strings vibrate as he moved his other hand along the frets. The music that flowed out were a bit dull having nothing else to compliment it. His playing was nice, but it needed more from other instruments that he didn't have nor anyone else to play them. Unless a zombie could play bass... But he highly doubted that. After a few more chords, he placed the guitar back in it's rightful place. He fell back in the bed listening to his own heart beat. Rudy realized afterwards that Kano's splashing had stopped. He looked up at the bathroom door to see it still closed.

"Must be drying off." He set his head back and locked eyes with said infected. Kano smiled from his position above the survivor. Rudy bolted back into a seating position and glared at the hunter. "Don't scare me like that!" Kano smiled ear to ear and chuckled. The zombie seemed to love causing mischief.

"Sorry..." Kano still kept a smile, only having a bit of fun with him. The survivor ran a hand through his brown locks and sighed.

"It's fine, just let me know when you're in the room or I'm putting a bell on you." Rudy walked off and grabbed Kano's old clothes and tossed them back at the infected. He didn't notice before, but Kano managed to wrap himself well in towels and a robe. Giving the infected it's privacy, Rudy turned his back towards him and waited. After hearing a low growl, the survivor assumed Kano was dressed. To his relief, he was. Though his clothes were torn a bit, he looked more as a homeless boy than a zombie. But his pale skin and glowing red eyes did give away the illusion.

"Alright, time for bed." The survivor sighed, thinking he would take a bath in the morning. He curled back into middle of the bed. Kano took his place at the foot of the bed, being more of a pet than a friend. Rudy smiled just before realizing that everyday would be different with this little infected around. But he did worry about his safety. What would they do with him if he gets rescued? Maybe Kano being sentient might save the lives of all the other infected, maybe he has a cure inside him. Although the chances for all these possibilities would be slim, he still felt glad to have him.

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><p><strong>That does it for this oneshot. I wish I could make this into a series, but that would mean I would be juggling five stories, and I can barely handle four. So anyways, tell me what you thought.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: Another Welcome

**Hey guys, I'm still juggling the other stories, but after getting a block on those stories, I thought writing the next chapter to this would help get everything flowing again. So here is the long awaited chapter to this. I'm not sure what I want the plot to be, so... Sorry 'bout that! Though I do plan on adding another character to liven it up... Hehehe, stupid life puns.**

**Anyways, Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead, or Kano. And I technically own Rudy since he's my cousin-in-law... But I don't own him physically, I wish, he's awesome and wish I could sing with his band.**

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><p>When Rudy woke up, he felt his body was incredibly cold. Opening his eyes, he saw that Kano had ripped the covers off of him and wrapped himself in them.<p>

"Dammit Kano... Why do you need all the sheets?" He huffed. The small hunter looked at him and smiled as he responded in his raspy voice.

"Cold..." The human wondered about the infected boy. He put his hand on Kano's forehead and felt the bone chilling skin he had.

"What the hell, you are cold..." The survivor began to theorize that the infected were cold blooded. And that Kano was human enough to have it bother him. "Should've told me, I could've gotten you your own blankets." The infected nodded his head in understanding, knowing know that Rudy would go the extra mile to help him and make sure he's comfortable. The zombie smiled and attempted to warm up. The survivor sighed and remembered that he hadn't taken a bath the day before. He walked over to the luxurious bathroom and proceeded to run the warm water. Thankful that it was warm, instead the frigid cold temperatures that the saferooms seemed to offer.

After having a full tub, Rudy discarded his clothes and stepped into the warmth of the water. As he submerged his body in, he let out a deep sigh full of content. He loved the fact of having a nice warm bath. Of course, any bath was nice when you spent most of the time wishing there was any water left in a Safe Room. But the luxury of always having it was seemingly dull now along with the routine.

"I have Kano now, that should be enough to break the routine." He smiled as he dunk his head in the water and held his breath. He always like water, and he wished that the Penthouse had a pool, though it did have one it was just currently empty and had a big red S.O.S. spray painted into it. So technically he wished their was an available pool in the Penthouse.

He surfaced to refill his lungs with oxygen after what felt like five minutes. It was a skill he developed as a singer to be able to hold in a lot of breath for long periods of time, and the technique only got put to good use whenever a Smoker blew up around his area, he could hold his breath and pass by the smoke without having a coughing fit.

The survivor brushed the wet brown hair out of his face and enjoyed the rest of his private bath, hoping for a bit more time to relax, though he felt that he shouldn't take forever. Kano, so far, was a little troublemaker, it was best to keep his eye on him to keep him from doing anything bad.

After a minute or so, Rudy emerged from the bath and began to dry himself off and slapped himself for forgetting to get a clean change of clothing. Sighing and running a hand through his damp hair, the survivor wrapped the towel around his waist and exited the large bathroom.

His first objective was to make sure the Hunter was behaving, he checked it off the list seeing as the small infected was still cocooned into the bed sheets. Making his way to the closest, Rudy took the only set of clothes that were left in it. He had to travel light when he was on the run from the Green Flu. The only clothing he managed to get was the two sets of skinny jeans, some socks along with boxers, and different t-shirts he had. Only thing distinguishing the two shirts were that one was a band shirt, and the other was just a white t-shirt.

Checking to see of the special infected was still asleep and confirming it, the human slipped on his boxers and jeans under his towel. After his lower waist was covered, he let the towel fall and quickly put on the white t-shirt. How this shirt remained stain free was beyond him.

"Hey Kano, you awake?" He called out to the zombie, only to have a high growl in return. "Wanna check the other rooms with me?"

This time the Hunter leaped out of the sheets and crouched by his side, teddy bear still clutched in his hands. Rudy chuckled as he began to walk out, Kano following closely by his side.

This time, the survivor wanted to take the infected all the way to the bottom lobby. Though, the second he heard gunshots, he rushed to the window. From what he could see, a lone man was firing into a small horde of the infected following him, he was slowly backing into the barricaded doors of the hotel.

"Shit, we have to help him... but..." He looked back at Kano, who was currently finding interest in the brochures. What would this other survivor think about when he sees the sentient Hunter? But he couldn't just leave a human out there to die. He looked at the vending machines he used to create the barricade. It being the easiest to push out and allow entry out of the other various objects obstructing the entrance.

"Kano, help me push this out of the way." The hooded zombie leaped to his companions side and helped push the bulky machine out of the doorway. A feat done easy due to wheels on the machine. Rudy opened the door and yelled out to the survivor.

"Hey! Hurry in here, it's safe!" The man took a moment to look back at the open entrance during a reload and sprinted to the safety of the lobby. Kano and Rudy wasting no time to push the barricade back into place.

"Thanks so much, I thought I was a goner this time." He sighed in relief and feel and his rear, tired and happy about finding a great place to catch his breath and recover. His black hair being neat despite it's greasy look, his green eyes looking tired with the dark circles under them.

"Couldn't let a human die out there. My name's Rudy and this is Kano." The brown haired survivor introduced himself and the zombie. Upon locking eyes with the Hunter, the raven haired man backed away scared out of his mind.

"That's a Hunter!"

"No, he's nice, I promise!" Rudy stood between the two, hoping that the pistol he had was still empty and needed to be reloaded. "Yeah he's infected, but he actually doesn't bite or slash or eat flesh, he doesn't even have claws, and he hasn't bitten me once." The small infected peeked at the other man from behind Rudy's legs.

"I don't know, he's staring at me..."

"The only thing bad about Kano is that he's a bit of a troublemaker, he says a few words every now and then, and last night he slept at the foot of my bed, not once did he attack me."

"Well, alright, but I'm still keeping my eye on him." The man rose from the ground and dusted himself off. Wiping a bit of blood off his hand and stretching it out for a handshake. "My name's Dave."

"Nice to meet you, Dave." Rudy returned the handshake and focused on his features. Dave had light skin, grime and blood everywhere but otherwise a stern face. Looking no older than he was. A small cut was on his chin, the brown haired man decided to treat it, despite the size. "Follow me, need to show you the room."

"What do you mean?"

"The Penthouse, we're living in it, and all the appliances here work, you can take a hot bath, have the lights on and shit, we even have a great supply of food." The raven haired man smiled.

"That's awesome, glad you let me in!" He cheered, forgetting about the small infected he was scared of earlier. As they finally made it up the many stairs, Rudy couldn't help but grin when he opened the door to the Penthouse Suite.

"Holy shit, it's amazing... And we have this whole room to ourselves?" Dave examined the entire room to find plenty room for the three of them.

"Yeah, used to be just me, but yesterday I found this little guy in the rooms and took him in, now you're here and I'm glad about it." The raven haired man stopped to look at him.

"Why's that?"

"Well, I've been here for quite a while now, and things got a little boring, so I was glad that I found Kano to add a bit of change to routine, but I can't speak with him seeing how he only speaks two words max for each sentence. Now I got a human to talk to." He smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm glad I got someone to talk to too, and I guess I won't mind him..." Dave pointed at Kano, who sat on the bed, clutching his teddy bear. "He is adorable though."

"Yeah, he'll grow on you. Anyways, you look beat up and dirty, so go ahead and take a bath and I'll clean your clothes, after that, I can treat your wounds." Rudy explained while he took a seat on the bed, Kano still a bit frighten by the other man instead of vice versa. Without hesitation, Dave was off and into the luxury bathroom, Rudy getting a laugh upon the raven haired man's praise for the warm water. Much like the day before with the Hunter, he found the clothes left at the doorway and went through the process of cleaning them through washer and dryer, along with his own dirty clothes as to not waste water.

Though repeating this simple task reminded him of the rut he was in, but he shook his head from the thoughts after convincing himself that this was different, there was now someone to talk to, and someone to play with.

The survivor sighed as he checked hastily for the med kits, he remembered taking all of them and placing them in the same place, but that one location eluded him.

"Dammit, Kano, help me find the med kits." Not a second later after asking for help, did the Hunter disappear under the bed and back on the other side with the red pack in his teeth. The brown haired human slapped himself after realizing that he wanted to have them as close to him as possible, thus leading to stashing them under the bed. "How did you even know where they were?"

"Smell..." The Hunter replied, Rudy realized that Kano must have smelled the disinfectants and other medicines in it. More and more, he was starting to believe that the Hunters were more like Hunting Dogs than anything else. And for some unknown reason, he remembered how the infected stole the covers last night.

"Better get more blankets for me and Dave, I'll be right back Kano, don't do anything stupid." The survivor made his way out the room and walked to the closest rooms and pulled out their bed sheets.

During Rudy's gathering, the small Hunter began to wander through the Penthouse and occasionally just leaping across one end to the other just for fun. While Kano was in mid flight, the bathroom door opened and the raven haired man watched as the infected flew through the air. He cringed, reflexes kicking in to pull out a weapon and defend himself, but sense came back to him and reminded him that this Hunter was still retaining Human traits. He also realized that he had nothing to defend himself at the moment, unless a towel can decapitate someone, but then he would just be fighting a zombie naked, and no one wants to do that.

Dave stared at the small infected, feeling nervous when the red eyed stared back at him. The lifeless skin and hair did nothing to help calm him down from anxiety. The green eyed survivor walked to the couch and crossed his legs and waited patiently for the other human to come back from whatever his was doing. But it was still unnerving him with the wait.

"So uh... You can talk right...?" Dave asked, scratching the back of his head in a nervous manner. Kano nodded his head and gave a raspy answer.

"Yeah..." The human didn't expect to hear such a raspy voice from the zombie, but it seemed fitting for the small guy.

"Ok... If you don't eat people, what do you eat?"

"Don't need... to..." Before Dave could ask anymore, the door opened, causing the man to flinch and the infected to smile.

"I'm back, with bed sheets and your clothes." He noticed the fearful expression on the other human's face and felt the need to ask. "Did Kano scare you?"

"No, you did, I'm still a little on edge from being out there..." Rudy gave an understanding nod and placed the folded clothes and bed sheets on the couch beside Dave.

"It's fine, you'll get used to it. Anyways, after I heal ya up, you can get some food, we got a large supply so you can pig out and not feel bad." The brown haired man pulled out the med kit and poured some disinfectant onto a cotton ball and began treating the small cut on Dave's face, getting a small whine from him every now and then. Though it was the only fresh wound on the survivor, the rest were all scars that had been healed and still recovering.

"Thanks for everything, Rudy." Dave smiled at the brown haired man.

"Hey, it was nothing."

The rest of the day proceeded with the two humans learning more about each other over a meal. The brown haired man learned that Dave was a mechanic and working in a shop with his two best friends. The three of them were so close that they did everything together, even forming a band, which Rudy was delighted by when he learned that Dave played the drums. But the tales were getting sad when he mentioned the start of the infection. From what he said, one friend managed to get on a Helicopter to safety in time, while his own crashed and left him the lone survivor of it. The third friend he has yet to find out what happened.

"I guess it's bad luck that I didn't die in the crash."

"Don't say that, bad things happen so that the good things that come our way feel much better." Rudy reassured the other. "Even if something goes wrong, it doesn't mean everything is supposed to go wrong, you can have a crappy life and then a great thing happens to you, you just have to be patient enough to get it."

Dave smiled and felt his blood pump with hope. "Thanks man, I guess finding this place is that great thing."

"Yeah, well it's getting late, we should go to bed... If you want, we can sleep on the same giant bed. or you can just sleep on the couch." Rudy grabbed the extra sheets and made his way to the bed, which Kano was already cocooned and asleep in.

"For a vicious zombie, he sure acts cute all the time..." The green eyed man sighed and scratched his head. "I guess I can get over that fear and sleep in the same bed."

"Great, left side is mine, you can have the right." The two survivors hopped into the large bed and had their backs facing each other, two feet separating them. "Goodnight." Rudy sighed and closed his eyes.

"Night..." Dave yawned as he felt relieved to have a comfortable bed to rest in.

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><p><strong>As I said before, still not sure on the plot. But I'm open to suggestions, I hope I didn't make some of my fans wait too long to see this become a series. Though still juggling other stories again... But one is close to ending and This could be my way of saying, IT IS TIME. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this and was patient enough to get the chapter series for.., I don't know three months or so? Anyways, if you actually stuck that long, I congratulate you.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3: Surpising Realizations

**I don't know if I stressed this before, but just incase... This is just pure friendship, no pairings. I need a break from relationship writing and just focus on a small plot that I don't even know yet.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kano or the infection, I technically own this image of Dave and own Rudy.**

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><p>Around the break of dawn, the black haired survivor shot up and felt his heart racing and fear clouding his mind. Dave looked to his side to find that the small Hunter had taken the space between himself and Rudy instead of staying at the foot of the bed. Kano and Rudy remained asleep, the Hunter's expression being solemn and calm, but the facial features still indicating that he was still infected. If the pale skin wasn't a give away, Kano looked human sleeping.<p>

Still skeptical about the infected, Dave slipped out of bed and made his way to the glass doors that led to the outside pool. He stared out at the clouds and began to notice the beauty of it. The peace and quiet that complimented the view as well. Had he still been out and fighting off the infected would he never be able to take in the breath taking sunrise.

Hearing the bed behind him creak, Dave flinched and looked over at the rising figure of Rudy. He rubbed his eyes a bit before stretching out his arms and looking at Kano with a smile, then to the window to see his new roommate and companion.

"Morning, did you sleep well?"

"Not really... I'm still trying to convince myself that zombies aren't just outside the door." Dave sighed and put his attention back to the rising sun.

"You'll get used to it... It's beautiful isn't it?" The raven haired man nodded in agreement.

"The things we take for granted, back in before shit hit the fan we would have never thought we'd miss having a peaceful moment, we would just think the world would stay as it is and nothing like this would happen... I know how corny that sounds, but my real point is... Maybe things were meant to go bad like this. Maybe this is God's way of teaching us a lesson." As much as Rudy wanted to laugh out loud, he didn't want to offend his new friend.

"Well, do you honestly think God controls everything?" Dave finally turned his head and looked at the brown haired man.

"What do you mean, since he created the world, he should have control."

"The way I see it, if God really exists, he doesn't control a thing. He only created the world and just watches what he set in motion. He tosses the dice and looks to see which head will roll. Life is a game and he's got a gambling addiction." Rudy sighed and ran a hand through his messy bedhead. His hair being a tangled mess at the moment.

"That makes more sense then just teaching us a lesson, so we're in this shit hole because of bad luck?"

"Yeah, but we're also safe at the moment because of good luck. Same for this little guy." Rudy smiled as he looked at Kano stirring in the bed. "He's probably dreaming about snapping a Giraffe's neck." Although he meant it as a joke, he noticed that Dave saw it in a literal sense, at least not a giraffe's neck.

"I still don't trust that thing." As if on cue, Kano turned over in his sleep and even yawned, but showed no sign of waking just yet.

"Kano still hasn't done anything to either of us, so can you just drop your guard and hug him?"

"How can you be so nonchalant about this!?" Dave raised his voice, completely forgetting about the sleeping infected. Upon hearing the commotion, the small Hunter lifted up his head and sniffed the air and opened his eyes to look repeatedly between the two humans. Kano frowned, already aware of the tension in the room. "That thing isn't human anymore, just because it can speak short sentences and hasn't attacked us yet, doesn't mean it's still human!"

"Well he's not a zombie either. He's not human and I already knew that, but he's not a flesh eating monster either, he's just Kano. Nothing more, nothing less." Rudy placed his hand on the edge of the small infected's hood and pulled it down to show the dirty blonde that curled and framed his face. Although the red eyes still glowed with an unnatural illumination, they still appeared to be show emotion, human emotion that a normal infected doesn't show. A regular zombie would have a thousand yard stare that only seek fresh meals. Kano's reflected the shine of the light and focused clearly on the situation at hand.

Dave wondered for a sec about what his new friend had just explained. It's true that he noticed the blend between human and infected and being something more.

"... I'm sorry, it's just the stress is still there and it makes me irritable."

"It's fine, now give Kano a hug." The brown haired survivor smiled as he watched the priceless shocked look on the other man's face. "Yes I'm serious, give him a hug and tell him your sorry for yelling."

"... But uh... Alright." The raven haired man sighed as he approached the bed and looked more closely at the Hunter. The scar that decorated it's pale face causing the man to shiver a bit. Without warning, Kano wrapped his arms around the green eyed man, only to have him flinch and lose track of his thoughts for a moment. But once he was able to process what had happened, he returned the gesture and patted the infected. "I'm sorry for yelling and waking you up."

"It ok..." The small Hunter grinned as he enjoyed the warmth from the human.

After breaking apart from the hug, the three just stayed where they were in awkward silence.

"So... What do we do now?"

To answer his question, Rudy walked to the corner of the Penthouse and retrieved his guitar. "Ah that's awesome, I wish there was a drum set here so I could play too."

"... I think I saw one here, wanna go and check?"

"Fuck yeah!"

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><p>As the two agreed on their activity for the day, all three were going together to search for the drum set in the large hotel. Though he hardly doubt that the drum set would be in a good condition, Rudy still wanted to search for it.<p>

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked casually while Dave was the complete opposite, staying alert and on edge. Kano on the other hand was staring at anything he thought was fascinating, both survivors wondered if the infected's attention span was that of a squirrel's.

"He's like a puppy." Dave commented when the Hunter looked under a vase for no apparent reason.

"Yeah, but he is a bit smart." The compliment was quickly retracted when the infected tossed the vase against the wall and smiling at the pieces that scattered.

Continuing on with their search, the raven haired man decided to try the large dining room. Being a large hotel in a tourist thriving city, the hotel had a large fancy dining room for guest to dress formally and attend with live music to soothe them while they ate gourmet food.

"Yeah, there it is!" Rudy smiled and his excitement only grew bigger seeing that it was still in a good condition. Instantly, the raven haired survivor ran up to the set and marveled at the details. Everything about seemed to be untouched by any wear and tear, even the drumsticks, which he was surprised were still there, barely had any damage to them.

Even amidst the joyful moment, Kano couldn't help but smell something. A scent that smelled putrid to others but intoxicating to himself. Thanks to a rational side of himself, the small infected was able to think a bit more clearly about the situation.

"Boom!" The Hunter cried out, voice a bit more raspier than usual.

"What...?" The brown haired man didn't understand the warning, neither did Dave at the moment.

"Boom... Ah shit, he means a Boomer!" The humans began to look around the dining room for any signs of the portly infected. Their heart rates increasing from the thought of a vicious infected being around while they were defenseless. "I thought you said this hotel was safe!"

"I'm sorry, I've been on the top floor this whole time, and I never really checked if all the rooms were empty, either he was hiding out in one, or there's a hole big enough for him to squeeze through." Rudy replied, still keeping his calm and joking demeanor.

"Really hope it's the former and that it's the only thing that's in here besides us." Dave tried to listen in around the room for the gurgles and rumbles that gave away a Boomer's location, it was faint and was easily drowned out by his own heartbeat.

Kano sniffed the air, snarling as the scent grew stronger, as much as a part of him loved the smell of Boomer Vile, the sane part of his mind was disgusted by it, and sanity was overpowering feral tendencies. he crouched low to the ground, facing the direction of the entrance and lowly growling. The second he caught sight of a pale and chubby arm, he pushed himself off the ground with the leg muscles that were far more stronger than when he was human. soaring through the air, his hood fell back and the breeze blew through his curls, unlike the other Hunters, Kano didn't make the mistake of giving himself away by screeching midflight.

Rudy and Dave stared in wonder at how quickly the events took place, both only caught of few glimpses of what happened and even shared the images to put the pieces to the picture together. What the humans saw was their infected friend in the air heading towards the entrance. The Boomer that they were looking for stepped into full view from the doorway, but only to get knocked down on his back by Kano gripping the arm of the Special Infected and nearly ripping it off. The Boomer's arm did appear to be dislocated, making it more difficult for the chubby zombie to get back up. But the Hunter never gave it a chance.

After pulling back the arm and bringing the Boomer down like a falling tower, Kano slid down on the carpet into a crouched position and prepared for another leap, only the direction he was heading was skyward. The small infected managed to cling to the ceiling and was positioned above the Boomer still struggling on it's back. Giving himself a push off the ceiling with his incredible lower body strength, in one great fluid motion, Kano managed to smash the heel of his boot right at the center of the fat infected's stomach, causing the portly loaf to explode and propel the Hunter back a bit. The Vile, blood, and guts rained on him and coated the walls of the hallway and dining room.

After the kill, Kano removed his soiled hoodie and shirt and ran out away from the halls, carrying his clothing with him.

"Holy shit, did you see that!?" Dave was both scared and amazed by the Hunter's skill.

"Only bits and pieces..." Up to that point, Rudy had seen Kano as a defenseless little puppy thing, he had never expected to see it perform such an incredible kill in such short time. The small Hunter didn't appear as innocent to him anymore.

"Where do you think he went?"

"Probably back to the Penthouse, to take a shower and clean his clothes. If he reeks of Boomer and if there are more infected in here, he would want the stench off of him before they find him." Rudy elaborated on the subject.

"Or he's luring them away from us... Either way, we should head back, we can come back for the Drums later." Agreeing to the plan silently, Rudy began to lead Dave out the dining room through the kitchen and other doors marked 'Employees Only'.

Each corner they turned with extreme caution, just incase if their assumptions of other infected still roaming the hotel were true. But so far they were wrong, but all the more skeptical of their sanctuary. The paranoia was setting in. Though after reaching the Penthouse suite and locking the door behind them.

Dave collapsed on the bed and sighed heavily. Rudy placed his ear on the bathrooms door and exhaled in relief when he heard a few splashes.

"Kano's still bathing." He smiled a bit and sat at the bed with Dave.

"That's good..."

"Now that's weird, has he grown on you yet?" Rudy chuckled, still as oddly humorous as ever. The raven haired man couldn't help but blush from embarrassment.

"Yeah, well I've been thinking... If he was able to do that, then he really is good since he hasn't done something like that to us."

The brown haired man grinned at the change of heart. But the realization did hit him as well. "Hey, was this place empty when you first found it?"

"Uh yeah, Kano and that Boomer were the only zombies I've seen the whole time I've been here." Dave got back up in a seated position and looked at Rudy with a serious face.

"Maybe the hotel was devoid of other infected because Kano managed to clear them out, those zombies are pretty strong but don't have a mind to be able to really put more effectiveness to their kills." The brown haired man showed a bit of surprise in his eyes but smiled nonetheless.

"I'm so glad we found him then... And since I never really found blood stains anywhere, that means he kept the whole place cleaned."

"I don't blame him for cleaning the place up, must have been boring just sitting around." The conversation ended there and they waited patiently for their infected friend to emerge from the bathroom at any moment. Though it occurred to Rudy that the small Hunter's clothes were probably put through the washer and dryer, so he felt the need to check and bring them back for Kano.

"I'll be back, I'm gonna check and see if he washed his clothes and if they're done."

"Alright, be safe." The brown haired man smiled as he unlocked the door and walked casually through the halls. After that small little chat, he felt even more safe to be here. Not only did he now have a human partner to watch his back, a killer smart zombie with strong lower body strength. When he found himself in the laundry room, he was happy to see that both the clothes and boots were in there. Though the clothing needed to be put through the dryer and the boots needed to be hand washed with a cloth. He nearly lost his stomach contents when he took a whiff of the vomit on them. Then he realized that none of them had ate anything since last night.

Choosing to first clean the boots, Rudy ignored the growls in his stomach that only started now to complain after the realization. After he was done with wiping the black combat boots clean and nearly upchucking but swallowing it down, by mere coincidence did the clothes get finished drying. Rudy smiled and quickly folded the blue jeans, light orange shirt, and black short sleeved hoodie. He tucked both boots under his arm and returned to the room.

After opening the door, he found that Kano was already out and awaiting his clothes with Dave. Both sat on the bed facing the door and sat closer than before. Showing that Dave had gotten over the fact that Kano was an infected. Unlike yesterday, the small Hunter only wrapped his lower waist in a towel. The rest of his torso was nicely built, but from his size you wouldn't think that he was young. Then again, he had no idea how old the little infected actually was. Rudy just assumed he was a teenager.

"Got your clothes, by the way, how old are you guys? 'Cause I'm 23." The Hunter took his clothes back and shamelessly began to change in front of the others, though not without them turning around to give privacy.

"I'm 24."

"18." Both looked at the Hunter with shock, the little guy looked around 16 to them. But the muscles did suggest otherwise. Kano grinned from ear to ear and kept the hood down. Hair still a bit wet and matted against his forehead. Afterwards the Hunter returned to the bed and retrieved his ragged teddy bear.

"18 years and still sleeps with a teddy bear, that can not be any more adorable." The two humans chuckled and both looked at Kano to see a bit of color tint his cheeks. How a pale skinned zombie is still able to blush is beyond the science capabilities of both of them. So as always, they agreed to just say, fuck logic and not question it.

"Today was fun, wouldn't ya say?" Kano and Dave nodded in full agreement, somehow a bit of an attack was fun to them despite their safety being at stake. Things were strange but it was better than being bored all day.

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><p><strong>I'm really hoping I'm doing a good job with this. Since I don't really know what the plot is, I'm kinda making it up as I go, but it flows better somehow. Like I don't have to stretch anything out for a couple hundred words, no, I can just write what I see in the situation and keep going with it... I'm not sure if that makes sense, anyways, hope you guys enjoyed it.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4: Warmth of Blood

**I think I have a general set plot now, but still not really... Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter guys.**

**Disclaimer: Kano is owned by Jin (Shinzeki no Teki P) Dave (the idea) is technically owned by Valve. I own Rudy (related by marriage)**

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><p>After today's events, both humans were a bit exhausted, though they did seem to have the energy to get up and eat, but to put the plates away, nope, they just didn't have the energy. Both stared at Kano who hadn't even put a dent in his food.<p>

"What's wrong, not hungry?" Rudy attempted to get an answer. The Hunter shook his head and rubbed his stomach.

"Full."

"What, how are you full already, you only ate two bites!?" Dave wondered for a second, remembering that Kano said he doesn't need to eat. But he wanted to put more logic to the reason.

"Have you noticed that there are a lot of zombies and few survivors?"

"No shit." Rudy answered with a chuckle to be playful.

"That means not every zombie eats a person since there is a limited supply of fresh human meat. And since most zombies can survive with a arm or leg missing, or even parts of their jaw and such, that means they're enduring creatures. I'm pretty sure some of these Special Infected, like Kano, can actually have a faster regeneration rate than most humans." Rudy was following but wondered if that last assumption was true. "So look at this way, the Infected do eat, but not much, whatever small amount they do eat however, may sustain them for weeks or months. The Green Flu was rumored to make super humans, if that's true then Kano right here is the only 'living' proof of it's success."

"Wow... That makes so much sense, and to add to that success thing, our little buddy is smart, has a good muscle build and the incredible lower body strength, and the fact that he has the zombie stomach without the appetite for flesh. When we get rescued, no way are we leaving him behind."

The raven haired man smiled and nodded. The agreement was enough to make the infected blush in happiness.

"We're sticking together Kano, no matter what." The infected hugged the brown haired survivor, eliciting a returned hug and chuckles from the other human watching the display. "So should we go and get the drums?"

"I don't know... I'm feeling pretty lazy..." Dave replied, laying back into the bed.

"Yeah, me too." Rudy answered, yawing and releasing the infected from his embrace. The small Hunter sat up on the bed and stared at the two resting.

"Guys..." Both opened their eyes upon hearing Kano's distressed and always sore voice. "If... I change... You would still like, right?"

Rudy felt his eyes flash a bit of sadness. "If that were to happen, I would still like you Kano, even if you became feral like the things outside, you're still Kano to me." Dave stayed silent, knowing that he asked Rudy more than the both of them.

"I should take a bath right now."

"Have fun..." Rudy smiled at his little comment, knowing that the tub probably reeked of Boomer Vile. He looked over at Kano, his hair finally dry and curling in the right places. "Wanna go get the drums with me?"

The Hunter gave a toothy grin and nodded. The brown haired man took note that the infected still had all his teeth in place, with the exception of a single long canine fang, yet it still counted as a tooth and not missing, just strange. His teeth also appeared to be pretty clean despite being a zombie. Maybe the little guy never forgot how to properly brush his teeth and floss. Then again, Kano wasn't eating brains and flesh everyday.

The two walked casually through the halls of the hotel, Rudy feeling much more safe with the Hunter by his side, but as a precaution to help if another infected was still roaming, he hid a combat knife in under his shirt. The hotel seemed cleared out and free of anything at the moment, which put more ease into the human.

Once they made it to the dining room, the brown haired survivor began to search for an easier way to transport the whole set without taking it apart. After widening the search to the kitchen, the human decided to use the food cart. With the help of the small infected, the two managed to place the drum set on top of the cart with ease.

"Alright, time to head back." Rudy started to push the cart back through the hallway and made a turn to take the stairs. The hotel was so renowned for getting booked with many visitors that they added a ramp to the stairs as to help the handicap if the elevators were ever out of order. Which the survivor was a bit too paranoid to test the elevators out in fear of falling down the shaft. That was not going to be the way he would die.

So the ramp/stairs it was!

Honestly, he liked the small amount of exercise he would get from traveling up the stairs. He would need it seeing if he ever needed to go out of the hotel ever again. If it was necessary, he would want to be ready for it. But now that he thought about exercise, he wondered if this hotel had an work out room. This hotel seemed to have a lot of things, so it wouldn't hurt to look for it. _'For living here a month, I really don't know what's in this hotel outside of the Penthouse...'_

He sighed and ran a hand through his brown locks of hair. Rudy turned around to find that Kano was working out on his own by jumping up each floor from hanging on the railings. Based on what he saw before, the Hunter had amazing lower body strength, but by pulling himself up to the other floors, he was strengthening his arm muscles. But just the fact that he was able to travel floor to floor and even leap up to grab onto the next floor's railing, that was enough to show how strong the Hunter really was, yet his body build mislead his assumption of being a bit weak.

He had to admit, it was pretty entertaining to watch Kano practice this feat. But occasionally, the small infected would slip up a bit and nearly give the human a heart attack at the thought of his friend plummeting down a flight of stairs to his death... Though he has seen a few zombies survive falls like it, he still felt anxious about Kano dying, again as a zombie.

"Be careful, I don't want you to fall and splatter all over the first floor." Upon hearing his voice, the Hunter wrapped his legs around the railing and bent over backwards to look at the human, hair and hood hanging in a comical fashion. He flashed a grin and was soon falling. "Kano!"

The brown haired survivor rushed to the edge to check if the Hunter was alright but saw no sign of the infected anywhere. "Gotcha!" From underneath the exact spot Rudy stood at, the Hunter peaked up at him.

"Ass! You scared me!" Kano grinned at him with a small snicker. The small infected hopped back up to his level and stayed hunched on the top railing. "Scare me any other way, but not with your death... I'd hate to think you died."

The grin faded from the infected's face and his eyes nearly tearing up.

"Hey it's ok, it's just... I'm sorry that I care for you this much." To comfort the Hunter, Rudy began to pet his head and give him a hug. "Now enough fooling around, we gotta get the drums to Dave." After breaking the hug, the survivor began pushing the cart again, this time Kano remained on the ground and taking a less life threatening route.

After reaching the room, the human opened the door and found that Dave was asleep on the bed, fully sprawled out and towel being the only means of cover. _'It's official, I've seen my new friends half naked now.'_

Rudy chuckled to himself as he brought the cart to his guitar.

"Alright, Kano. Try and be as quiet as you can." The brown haired survivor warned as they both grabbed onto the Drum set. They gently placed it on the ground and carefully backed away from it, hoping not to have a comical mess up that would cause a lot of ruckus and wake up Dave. "I'm gonna take a shower myself, don't wake up Dave, ok?"

Rudy whispered to the small Hunter, getting an understanding nod from him. With a pet goodbye, the survivor left for the closet to take a fresh set of clothes with him into the bathroom.

Disregarding what he had promised, Kano leaped over to the bed and stared at the sleeping figure of Dave. Watching his chest rise and lower as he expelled his lungs to breathe in fresh oxygen. The solemn look on his face, eyelids shut, keeping him from seeing the physical world and allowing him to view that which he was dreaming of. His lips opening every now and then, but otherwise breathing mainly from his nose. Another detail that the Hunter paid close attention to, was the beating heart. Just the thumping of it mesmerized the infected, but in a good way. Because his own heart matched the beat. Though the difference between the two being the blood they pumped, Kano's being infected with the Green Flu, while Dave's remained pure and untouched by the sickness.

Impulsively, the small Hunter began to crawl in the large bed, with caution not to wake him up. But he would still inch himself over closer to him, wanting to feel the warmth of his blood. Eventually, Kano managed to get under his arm and still keep the human asleep. Even though this was possibly going to wake Dave up with a heart attack, the infected was glad to get his body warm again through cuddling.

Upon exiting the bathroom and into the Suite, Rudy couldn't help but wish he had a camera to immortalize this moment. Kano was wrapped under both arms of Dave and both had their heads leaning on each others. Had he not wanted to wake either of them up, Rudy would've just yelled out a 'D'awwww!' And join the little hug. In fact, after realizing his last thought, the brown haired survivor got in the bed and joined them, and at a closer view, he could see that Kano had the widest smile he had ever seen on him.

Eventually, Rudy found himself drifting off and yawning, despite the sun still being out and shining through the glass doors.

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><p>The first to awaken out of the three was Kano, the young zombie felt his whole body was heated up thanks to his friends. It was a feeling he missed, the warmth of his own flesh and blood, but after becoming an infected, the blood in his veins became cold and even through exercise and wrapping in layers of clothing doesn't help keep him keep warm. But at this moment with his blood at a correct temperature for a human, the small Hunter felt he was alive again. A silly thought, but it still brought back nice memories, at least most of them.<p>

The special infected slyly left the bed and stared at both humans. Noticing that the black haired survivor was beginning to awake. Getting up to stretch, Dave let out a large yawn, one that caused his legs to spread a bit too far and caused the towel to unfurl and drop to his ankles.

Realizing the breeze, the human quickly picked it up and searched for his clothes, cheeks burning bright red upon noticing the Hunter awake and staring at him.

"Um... Morning Kano..." The Hunter shook his head and pointed at glass doors indicating that it was sunset and not sunrise. Aside from the pink tinting the infected's cheeks, Dave couldn't help but notice that the Hunter had more color to his skin. But the eyes were still that bright red that indicated both infected and living. "You're skin has color now, why's that?"

"W-Warm." Kano stuttered, still a bit embarrassed from seeing the survivor in all his entirety.

"Ok... I'm going to go change now..."

"Kay..." Both passed each other on their respective routes to the bed and closet. Kano wanting to get more sleep and warmth, and Dave hoping not to have this brought up ever again.

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><p><strong>I am slowly taking away Kano's innocence, whether be by killing his fellow zombies or by seeing a grown man naked by accident. Also sorry about that, but it was going to happen eventually when they are no women in this story! Or hardly any in the games, my explanation to that is that they got priority during the rescues. Only reason Rochelle and Zoey were left behind was either by laziness or by oversleeping. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'll try and make each chapter over 2000 words.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5: Tired Days

**Sorry, but this story is stayin' friendship... Maybe later I can write a different version that does have a relationship, but my main goal right now is getting on with this story.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Rudy and this image of Dave.**

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><p>The next morning, Dave made sure he all his clothes were properly tighten, including his waist band and his belt. He already accidentally flashed one person, he was not going to have an encore of those events again. Though if he had a change of clothes, he wouldn't have even slept on the bed with a towel. Now he just had to wait every time his clothes were clean to change into something fresh, he wasn't lucky like Rudy to have spare clothes, albeit only one t-shirt and pants.<p>

_'Maybe we could find some clothes later...' _He wondered if the hotel had any suitcases filled with anything that would fit him and his tastes. Or else they would have to widen their search to outside of the hotel, but why even risk the safety just for some clothes, it seemed to be a stupid and selfish idea.

But the neat freak side of his mind was begging him to find fresh new clothes to wear, even when his clothes were cleaned, he still felt oddly dirty by wearing them for more than one day. He struggled with the neat freak side, remembering back to times before the infection where he nearly drove his friends insane over getting grease all over his work coveralls, and then leading to a bit of an dirt fight, only with grease rags and oil cans.

"Damn them..." He sighed, but nonetheless smiled at the memories. He hated to admit it, but the chaos that would ensue back home was the whole reason he loved his life. Sure a predictable life can be safe, but it was unpredictable things that made it amazing. That could even be seen here, honestly, he liked having an almost infected free place to stay, and he was concerned for his own safety the moment he locked eyes with Kano, but upon further support and witnessing the antics that could go on with the small Hunter, it was safe to assume he loved what he found. And what he discovered was sitting in the room made him fall in love.

The very same drum set from the dining room was sitting right in the corner of the suite, seated right by the acoustic guitar. With drums in the room, which was more secure and protected than any other place in the entire hotel, the green eyed survivor could finally calm himself from negative thoughts and just rock out. But much to his dislike, the seat was missing, this moment couldn't be described in a greater analogy than getting a Christmas gift with no batteries.

As his usual reaction and expression to disappointment, Dave sighed and leaned against the wall, though the rational part of his mind was still thankful that they managed to bring it up here. It's the thought that counts, right?

Sliding down the wall and soon feeling immediately tired from calming down from the excitement, the raven haired survivor closed his eyes and thought back to his life before the disaster. The cheery bright personality of Ellis, the walking disaster yet otherwise stupid daredevil Keith. All three working at the shop together and still managing by pretty smoothly. Although the memories of them were sweet and full of nostalgia, they brought upon more negative thoughts. He worried about both his friends' conditions. He knew Ellis was a soft guy on the inside, and with death and decay surrounding the world, he worried that his optimistic attitude would fade, and even worse if he bit the dust. And despite knowing Keith managed to get in a Helicopter to get rescued, he knew how accident prone that man was, wouldn't be surprised if it crashed with him being the only survivor with minor wounds. And even if the wounds were major, like a punctured stomach, that was still a minor wound compared to all the shit he's been through, the man can shrug off the effects of enough Tranquilizer to take down a baby elephant! Yet Keith was not immortal despite his bragging of it.

Once again, Dave sighed deeply at his pessimistic thoughts. There was almost no way of stopping himself from assuming the worse of a situation, always has been that way for as long as he could remember. Hardly anything could make him see the light of the moment. He tucked his knees into his chest and lowered his head, his usual position when grieving.

"Dave?" The voice startled him, and would continue to startle him even if he saw the person that belonged to the raspy voice. Nearly jumping up, the human confirmed that it was the Hunter.

Don't sneak up on me like that Kano!" He whispered loudly, wanting to get his point across without waking up the brown haired man. The small infected chuckled, which with his raspy voice made it sound much like a suppressed laugh.

"Sorry... Too funny." Although the mischievous Hunter nearly gave him a heart attack again, his mind was no longer on the negative thoughts, but at the moment, he couldn't realize it.

"Why me, why not pounce on Rudy?" He had to admit, it would be hilarious to see the calm and collected man freak out when Kano just lands on his chest while he slept. Better him than himself, or to even up the score, either way worked for him. The blonde zombie grinned and nodded his head in agreement. His crouched on the ground and faced the bed, even growling lowly like most Hunters did.

And then the leap, even accompanied by the screeching in midair that caused both humans to nearly wet themselves. The Hunter landed with a loud thud on the brown haired survivor, and even pinned his arms down to prevent Rudy from accidentally hurting him. Though the human still didn't open his eyes and only waited for death to come. But eventually curiosity got the best of him and he looked at the large grin on the small infected, Kano's lips quivering and eyes watering, about to burst into a guffaw of utter joy from his scared expression.

"Really Kano...?" He knocked his head back onto the headboard, waiting for the Hunter to fall over in laughter and release his limbs, which as he expected, did happen exactly how he predicted. Kano fell over in laughter, thanks to the raspy voice, still sounded a bit demented, but even without it, it was still creepy.

Along with the Hunter currently finding that breathing was near impossible at the moment, Dave was suppressing his laughter to small chuckles, which quickly became a fell out laugh. "I'm sorry man, this is the most fun I've had in forever, it's hard not to laugh."

"You guys are such asses... But I'll admit, that wake-up call was better than coffee, this hotel is great!" Soon even the brown haired survivor who was pranked was laughing joyously. He had to admit that it was bad to do that, but it was something different and ended up being a fun laugh for everyone. Three days together and already laughing like idiots.

After everyone managed to calm down and catch their breaths, the trio just stayed in the silence and waited for the next reason to get up and about.

"So... I was thinking earlier... I kinda want to get some new clothes, but..." Dave began, but hesitated to finish.

"Sure, but not in our conditions, well, my condition, I'm soft right now, so I to at least have to work back some muscle so I can help." The green eyed man was lost for words at how easily read his was.

"How did you know I wanted to go out and look for clothes?" Rudy grinned and stretched on the bed.

"Because you just told me." Dave got up and stared avoided his gaze.

"You cheeky bastard..." But in all truth, he didn't really know why he was mad, maybe from the fact that he was tricked so easily when he himself was very intellectual, being the smart one out of his old friends. "so in that case, shouldn't you be doing pushups or something?"

"Nope, pretty sure this hotel has an indoor gym, if it's had all the other things we've looked for and got, then why not a gym?" he shrugged and made leaped out the bed, slipping his feet into his shoes. "Let's go, even if there isn't one, walking around will help build up some endurance."

Leading the way out the door, Rudy began to stroll through the halls, hands tucked into his pockets and whistling a tune. The others kept up with the pace, and knowing the three it soon became a race, each sprinting through the corridors, making sharp turns around corners, the small zombie leaping off the walls and running on all fours. Though the whole competition was pointless seeing as they didn't have a set finish line to stop at.

The race itself was close. Both humans managed to keep at each other's side, while Kano would either take the lead by a large leap then quickly lose it due to a turn and having to redirect himself. With adrenaline flowing through their veins, no one could realize that what they were doing was nonsense and had no point other than exhaustion and sore muscles later.

And in the end, all three were sprawled out on the floor, exhausted and tired from the endless running.

"Why did we do that...?" Dave heaved, his breathing still rapid and heavy, as were the others.

"Because science..." Even with his legs throbbing and his heart pounding loudly in his throat, Rudy was still able to keep a sense of humor, though it was a strange kind at the moment.

The infected was no exception to the fatigue, never in his undead life had he felt this tired, but that fact worried him. Since he was mutated for combat and being tired out by the footrace, it couldn't have been good on the survivors' part. The small Hunter managed to stumble to his feet and made his way to Rudy, his eyes closed and breathing was calming down. Taking a look at the other survivor, he confirmed that Dave was in the same boat.

Since the humans did not respond to a poke or nudge, and being able to hear their thumping hearts, Kano was able to put his mind at rest by the fact that they just fell unconscious from overexertion. Being the only conscious one, it was up to the infected to bring them back to the Penthouse so they could rest easy. Taking a look at a sign at the wall, the Hunter slouched in his bad luck to see that they were on the other end of the hotel and on the second floor.

But Kano shrugged it off and began to pick up Rudy's body. With the energy in him at the moment, he could only carry one at a time. But he wouldn't mind seeing as it would be a lighter load to carry. But it wasn't like they weighed much, after managing Rudy on his back, the Hunter estimated that he weighed roughly only 170 pounds, which was nothing compared to his limit.

Slightly jogging, the infected made his return to the Penthouse, making sure not to wake the tired man and yet doing so at a quick pace. Which in no time at all, the Hunter managed to lay the human gently on the bed on his proper side. The Hunter wanted to go out and retrieve Dave, but he wore himself more than he had intended. Instead, Kano fell back into the bed and spread his body out in the space that Dave would have occupied, sighing in bliss at the feeling of rest and sleep calling him. Though he needed to get the raven haired man, he needed this nap. And if he overslept, he would use it as an excuse for Dave's prank.

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><p><strong>... I can see why this can be taken as yaoi, but nope, still staying friendship... Not giving in. Just good ol' platonic friends, nothin' more. No sirree... Yup... Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed it.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6: The Price of Protection

**Time to take a one eighty! (180 degree turn)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead? Well screw you sir or ma'am!**

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><p>It was peaceful for a second. The muscles in his body were no longer tense and throbbing at the same rate as his heart, which had also calmed down after a nap. He back was nicely straightened out, as if he was laying on a flat surface to accommodate it. And to top it off, there was little ambient sound going on to break the solemn peace.<p>

The raven haired man smiled and even let out a breath of air he didn't know he was holding while getting up into a seated position. His sigh of content breaking the silence for a split moment, only to be followed by another sound. A sound he never expected to hear in this hotel, one that was too familiar and yet so miniscule to notice.

A pistol getting cocked.

Opening his widen green eyes to the barrel of a pistol, being able to see the rifling inside, Dave couldn't pay any attention to that which was being told to him. Fear clouded his senses and even flooded his mind with Ifs. _'Please tell me Kano and Rudy are still alive...'_

"-I said, give me all your weapons!" The voice was rather displeased with having to repeat the command. The voice appeared to be female and pissed off. But since the gun that could easily end his life was blocking his view, the raven haired man couldn't quite see the Judge he was at the mercy of.

"I-I don't have any..." He choked out, hoping she would believe and leave him alone. The metal was pushed up against his forehead and his sweat was starting build.

"Yeah, I know, I was just testing your trust." It hit Dave that he was under gun point for a while, before coming too, which would have given this woman the time to search him for anything dangerous.

"Then... Why are you putting a gun to my head?" He swallowed deeply afterwards and felt his blood go cold.

"I wanted to see if I could trust you-"

"You expect me to give you trust when you put a gun to my head? I know having a weapon puts you at an advantage, but to gain my trust? Are you seriously fucking kidding me? You do not do that." The raven haired man ranted for a bit, noticing that the pistol was held in a shaking and trembling hand. "Your idea was stupid, of course I'm going to tell you the truth at gun point, but that doesn't mean you have my trust, it just means I'm at your mercy."

"Whatever..." After finishing his argument, the Dave could see that the pistol was going lax and soon fell from her hands. Reacting quick, the green eyed man was able to snatch the gun before it collided with the floor.

"Why would you drop the gun? It's a loaded weapon and even so much as dropping it will cause it to discharge and fire out randomly, hitting either one of us by your stupid accident." Surprised that he was now scolding the person that had his life wrapped around her finger, Dave looked up at the woman. Light blond hair, gray eyes that had the shine of silver, her face matted in grime and blood. The young man blushed at her beauty despite being masked by what looked like months of hard work.

"I'm sorry... I'm just stupid." The young man sighed and stood up, taller than her by a full five inches. The raven haired man tucked the gun in his belt and extended a hand to her.

"So since we're not going to shoot at each other, mind telling me your name?" The blond looked at him with a confused face and hesitated to shake his hand. Though after accepting it and gripping his palm in his, the man felt a bit of a shiver of disgust go down his spine from the foreign grime that now coated his hand. The neat freak part of his mind was beginning to scream and shout to run away to the bathroom and clean himself, but the gentleman side was overpowering everything at the moment.

"Natalie..."

"I'm Dave, nice to meet you... So, how did you stumble on the Hotel?" Natalie pushed aside some stray strands of hair and sighed.

"Some guy I'm with saw it and wanted to scavenge it... He's heading up to the top floor and heading down to meet me in the middle, said if I see anyone, to do... Well ya know." The raven haired man's eyes widen. If this man forced her to hold a gun to another human's head, he would no doubt have no sympathy for a sentient Hunter.

"Shit, we need to get up there now!" Taking her arm and running through the halls, despite her protests and questions. Dave only hoped he could get up their in time before anything could happen. "I'm sorry, we have to get to the Penthouse before he gets there and kills my friends!"

"You have friends?!"

"Well, they're the best things to happen to me, and I don't want to see their brains splattered all over the walls! And... One of them has a... Condition..."

Without explaining further, the man dragged the woman through the staircase and feared the worst would happen. Despite hours ago, being exhausted from running, he didn't care about his own well being as long as Kano and Rudy were safe.

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><p>The brown haired man sighed in content when felt the nice soft bed on his back. After a stretch and rise, he found that which brought him back to the bed and nearly laughed at the relaxed facial expression the small Hunter had. His lips spread into a wide smile, and even a blush to his pale cheeks.<p>

"Kano... Wake up... Where did ya put Dave?" The man shook the zombie awake and smiled when he grumbled and even took the pillow to cover his face.

"Left him." It took a moment, but when he realized it, Rudy could not stop chuckling at the small prank. Young infected tossed the pillow from his face and stared at the door. Growling a bit.

"What's wrong? Dave stuck in the well?" Without warning, or even gracing the joke with a laugh. The Hunter grabbed the human by his collar and pulled him out of the bed towards the closet, shutting it behind them. "What the Hell Kano?" he whispered, hoping it was for a prank for the raven haired man.

But kick to the door and a slam suggested otherwise. Following gunshots, from the sound and rapid fire it was possibly a SMG, and shattering glass scattering across the ground. The brown haired survivor felt his eyes widen and even a few tears threatening to poor down his face.

"Damn... Thought I heard someone in here." Rudy could faintly hear the attacker speaking to himself, disappointed that no one was in the room to kill. Some possibilities began popping in his head and all of them were morbid. Dave was probably dead if he found him on the way up, and Kano would be killed immediately seeing as this man had less human emotion than the infected did.

His heart was pounding deep in his throat, the small Hunter still clutching his shirt which despite the death grip and unnatural cold skin, still gave a bit of comfort. Kano inched closer to the door and opened it slightly, letting a sliver of light in.

"Kano... Please don't go..." The brown haired man managed to speak softly. The dirty blond infected pulled down his own hood and stared at the survivor. Red eyes giving off an unnatural glow in the darkness. The eyes flickered periodically and the hand that gripped the shirt released him. The light of the red orbs faded, but Rudy knew he was just closing his eyes, possibly summoning the courage to go out and face the man. Though he needed to act quickly, if they waited too long, he would eventually open the door, and based on his earlier entrance, he's going to fire a full clip before realizing that he killed anything.

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><p>"A Hunter that talks and thinks!?" Natalie could not believe what she was just told, ever since the infection, she had never felt bad for killing a zombie, but just from the lone fact that one Hunter was able to retain a human conscience, she felt remorse for all the people that she killed. Though they were no longer human and trying to eat her, it still bothered her.<p>

"Yeah, Kano is infected, but he's still human. He killed other infected, but he hasn't hurt me or my other friend." The two still rushed, but at a much slower pace. Already worn out, but still needing two floors to go.

"And now Max is going to put a bullet in their brains... I'm so sorry..." Dave stopped for a moment, both to catch his breath and to comfort the woman.

"Nat, it's ok, you're not to blame here." Giving a reassuring stare, the blond nodded and followed him as they continued to sprint again. "That asshole is, and he better not hurt either of them, else I'm gonna kill him."

Back in the Penthouse currently under siege, the infected listened closely. Rudy's throbbing heart drowning out all other sounds in Kano's ears. The Hunter sighed and decided to wing the retaliation. Acting quick, he pushed the human further into the closet and ripped open the door. Ducking low to avoid more fire and leaping to the side to hang on the wall, taking a moment to look at the man. Short black hair, heavily muscled and tattooed. His dark eyes only seeking blood.

Noticing that the man had run out of ammo at the moment, hands reaching for a pistol on his belt, showing that he didn't want to be wasting time reloading. While flinging himself off the wall and towards the man, removing his hoodie and draping it over his head to blind the man. Though more bullets nearly hit him, and only poked holes in the fabric of his beloved hoodie. He loved that jacket, but it was a small price to pay for the life of his friend.

While the large human struggled to get the makeshift blindfold off of himself, the small infected landed on the bed beside the man and jumped closer to him, kicking his weapon out of his hand and even taking the SMG from him and tossing it aside.

By the time the hoodie fell to the floor, and stomped on by the man, he looked wide eyed at the zombie glaring at him. The gaze of red eyes fixated on him with emotion that no normal infected had. Just from the eyes alone, he could tell the Hunter was pissed, not even needing to see Kano's scowl and clenching fists.

"The fuck are you so pissed about? I wreck your little home?" Kano growled and barred his teeth, not even attempting to intimidate, only to seethe in anger. Their size difference was very noticeable, but the small Hunter didn't care and leaped at the man, hands wrapping around his throat, throwing him off balance as the crashed into the wall.

With his back pressed against a barrier, and a dangerous infected choking him. Though he had one arm grip the cold wrist of the zombie, the other reaching for his combat knife. Kano growling as he reared his head back and brought it forward to headbutt Max directly on the nose. Blood already pouring down the wound as he struggled to stay upright. He slumped down on the wall.

Max felt the hilt of the knife, though with the lack of oxygen in his body, he was beginning to pull it out of it's sheath and reaffirmed his grip on it.

The corner of his lips pulled up into a grin as he pulled the blade away from his body and looked at the light reflecting off the blade in the corner of his eye, angled directly to stab the Hunter. But Kano smiled as well. Just as he saw a moment of strain on his face, leaping off of the man as soon as he thrust the knife inward, towards himself. Causing it to graze his shirt and plunge into the man's own ribs. From the look of the blade length, it was well over three inches, just enough to pierce through and cause major internal bleeding.

Though it was victory that this man was bleeding out and couldn't harm them. The small Hunter couldn't help but feel mortified that he had took the life of a living human. He never felt bad for killing another infected, seeing as they lost all reason, and despite having the intention to kill on sight, this man was still a human. The first living blood he spilt.

"Hehehehe... I couldn't have found a better ending... At least I went out fighting." Max gurgled out. Footsteps were storming closer to the room as the small infected stumbled to the closet. From inside, the survivor saw the red eyes glow through the silhouette that was the infected, surrounded by the light that poured in around him.

"Kano!" Rudy ran up the Hunter and wrapped his arms around him. "I'm so glad you're ok buddy..." The second he felt the young zombie tremble and shake, the brown eyed man knew something was wrong. The dirty blonde grabbed onto his shirt and buried his face into Rudy's chest. Tears burning as they dripped out the corners of his eyes. Red irises soon being complimented with blending in with the whites of his eyes turning red.

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><p><strong>Zombies have feelings too people... Well, Kano does, don't give one a hug unless you know they have emotions. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter despite the emotions.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7: The Art of a Hunter

**Thanks to a Guest reviewer, I got a new Zombie to introduce. Honestly, I've done a story where I kinda had no plans for any other characters, but when someone suggested one and I actually added him in, it came out great and I ended up getting a close friend out of it and better plot points. So I'm always willing to try someone else's character. I love writing other's OCs. (Sorry to the person that reviewed the OC, took off the review so people don't spoil the character development)**

**Disclaimer: I only own this image of Dave, Rudy, Natalie, and have been given the new Infected.**

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><p>"Rudy, Kano!" The raven haired man yelled out upon entering the Penthouse Suite. Seeing that the door was already kicked open and hardly on it's hinges, the large glass doors leading outside being shattered and all over the ground. A few bullet holes in the walls as well as empty shells scattered across the floor. Dave nearly cried upon seeing the body, but was quickly relieved to see it was not that one of his friends. But the torn hoodie of the small infected was suggesting otherwise.<p>

The blonde woman soon entered the room and took a moment to walk up to the dead body, finding a wide smile still etched on his face. She didn't know how to feel about the man, yes he was murderous and a bit insane, but he protected her for this long.

"Dammit, guys where are you?" The man softened his voice, making it easy to tell he meant no harm.

"We're in the closet." Dave took in a breath of air, having stilled his breathing as to not miss anything. He dashed for the opened closet and found the Hunter sobbing softly into the brown haired survivor's chest. Rudy only trying to calm him down and soften the pain.

"Are you guys alright, what's wrong with Kano?" The Hunter turned his head to have teary eyes stare up at him. As it was already difficult for the infected to speak, his guilt made it impossible to form any coherent words.

"His hoodie is torn... And he loved it..." The man didn't exactly lie, but it wasn't the whole truth for the sad Special.

"Then who kill-"

"I did." Again, the human lied for the Hunter. Thinking if the murder of a human affected him this much, that taking the blame for him to his friend would ease it, even if it was only slightly. Whatever the cost was to bring back that smile on him, he would pay no matter the cost.

"Rudy... You killed him...?" Dave backed away, thinking this was the reason for having the Hunter to hold on to.

"Yes, now can we just drop it?" He asked kindly, rising from the ground with Kano still holding firm. Taking a moment to hold the small infected in a more secure way, the brown haired man past the green eyed man on the way out and noticed the blonde woman on the way to the bed.

"Hi there... Rudy and Kano right?" She asked, her voice was shaking a bit, nervous from overhearing that this man killed Max.

"Yeah, I'm Rudy, and this Hunter is Kano, don't worry, he's harmless." The third lie to fall out of his mouth that day, Kano was far from harmless, but he was a controlled chaos that was still affected by his own emotions.

"I'm Natalie... I knew Max over there." She titled her head to the carcass. She was too focused on the conversation to notice the Hunter tense up upon mention of the man. But it did not go unnoticed for Rudy.

"Let's not talk about him." He took a look around at the destruction of the Suite. Feeling mortified at the conditions. With the glass broken, it would allow the weather in, and with the possibility of infected wandering around the building, it could be a hazard to their lives. "Dammit, we can't live in this room anymore, we're gonna have to use another..."

The woman eyed the bathroom, which Rudy quickly understood why. "Go ahead and take a bath, we have running water, electricity, and food to spare. help yourself." Despite the nature of the moment, she felt it best to stay away knowing she would just bring more trouble somehow. Taking a bath would do her good and be a way to stay out of sight.

"Thank you. I hope you two feel better soon." She waltz into the bathroom and nearly died of happiness at the running warm water.

"Kano... I'm so sorry for what's happened..." The small infected released the man and leaped over the broken glass to reach the outside area of the Penthouse. Crouching down again and leaping out into the other surrounding buildings.

"Kano!" The brown haired survivor ran through the broken glass, feeling a few pricks cut through his shoes and socks. Reaching the edge, he could faintly see the Hunter leaping across buildings. Hearing the yelling, Dave immediately joined him and watched the blur moving away from their sight.

"Where's he going?" The raven haired man asked, getting a silent Rudy in return.

"He's going to get some air... He should be back." _'At least I hope he will...'_

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><p>The Hunter still felt tears prick the corner of his eyes. The rushing wind from each leap didn't help keep them at bay either. He couldn't stand that the human would go as far as to take his burden of killing a human. This was his sin, and he was the one responsible. Rudy showing compassion was a bit comforting, but it still made him feel terrible on the inside, he killed a man and taking the blame for it won't change that in his mind.<p>

The Infected paused in his leaps, staying on a low building and noticing something strange around him. At first it looked to be a few S.O.S. spray painted on the ground, but after fully checking it, it was more of random graffiti and art. Surveying the whole rooftop, the whole thing seemed spread in the art.

Even finding the door leading to the inside of the building was painted with some designs. Curious enough to see what made the drawings, Kano opened the door and ventured inside. And exterior matched the interior, more art lined the walls as he descended down the stairs, but he was beginning to notice that the colors were becoming less vibrant and dull. Soon the lifeless colors started to fade into one color. A dark color that soon mortified the small infected. Whoever had spent their time drawing all this must have been really desperate to go as low to even use blood as a paint.

The small Hunter was curious enough to even focus his sense to see if whoever created this was still in the building. He picked up on a faint heart beat, but it was muffled to his ears. Following the beat, Kano could even catch the fresh scent of blood. Though based on how many infected out of human there were, this was more likely infected blood.

As he progressed through the halls of the building, the small Hunter found that the drawings would get smaller and more erratic. Possibly due to scarce amount of blood. Then, he found him, the source of the all the drawings.

From behind, Kano could see skinny jeans that appeared torn in most places, higher he found a black tank top in contrast to pale skin. Dark oak brown hair that appeared messy and shaggy, especially compared to what the Hunter had seen. Paying close attention to the person, the small infected noticed that on the blood stained hands, were claws, this person was an infected, an infected that had the ability to paint intricate shapes and designs. This zombie was like him, sentient and human.

Feeling elated from finding another like himself, Kano tried to find the right words to announce his presence.

"Hi..." He croaked out, causing the other to turn his head and stare at the small Hunter. Yellow stared into Red for a moment, the fact that this Infected spoke back to him registering in his mind.

"You can talk too?" The words came out much more fluently than Kano expected, though the strained voice was a sure sign of infected and human.

"Kinda, not... Much." The both studied each other's features, the other zombie's Yellow eyes appearing just as human as his own.

"So... My name is Nate... Do you even have one?"

"Kano." Nate felt skeptical about the name, it sounded as though he made it up on the spot.

"Hehe, think of it all by yourself?" He teased, though the small infected felt offended. "So, what are you? You look like a Common but those eyes say you're not." To answer the question with loud actions, the small Hunter leaped up the hall and back. "Cool, a Hunter with no claws. I'm a Hunter too."

Nate smiled, wiping his bloodied hands on his skinny jeans to give a proper handshake, being cautious with the claws. Kano shook his hand and look back at the walls. He remembered the whole reason he found this place and his guilt. He turned away from the other Hunter and began to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Nate rushed over and kept the same pace by the small infected's side.

"To friends... Back home." The Yellow eyed Hunter smiled wider, intrigued that this Hunter had friends and a home.

"Are your friends like us?" The Red eyed Hunter shook his head.

"No, humans." Nate couldn't believe it, an infected managed to make friends with humans.

"Can I come with, I want a place with people to talk to..." Kano thought for a moment... This could be a way to make up for killing a human. By bringing in another sentient infected to help protect each other. With two deadly Hunters, people would think twice before trying to kill them.

"Yeah." Upon the approval, Nate hugged Kano tightly, even picking him off the ground and spinning around.

"Thank you so much!" After being released, the smaller Hunter felt his head was still spinning and needed to be held onto to walk straight for the duration of the trip. Though he was better back on the roof, but after briefly explaining the Hotel's location, Nate had challenged Kano to a race.

Several minutes of leaps later, it came to Kano winning by a full minute. The small Hunter having a bit more leg power due to his exercises the days before. He wasn't sure how Nate even managed to leap up to the top of the building with his larger body.

"Wait here..." Kano needed to brief the others about Nate before he walks in with him. The Yellow eyed Hunter nodded in understanding and watched the Red eyed infected walk inside the Penthouse.

Kano noticing that the glass was cleaned up and gone. Though he found that the body of the dead man was gone, Dave asleep on the couch with Natalie occupying the bed on her own. He was confused on where Rudy was until he felt another pair of eyes bore into him. Turning to beside his entrance, he found that the brown haired survivor was seated against the wall, waiting for him to come back, and now staring at him with a smile.

"I'm glad you're back..." In the form of an apology, Kano leaped over and gave Rudy a hug, which the human returned.

"Hey, quit hugging and let them know about me." The brown haired survivor jumped at the unfamiliar voice, and stared off to the side to find the yellow eyed Hunter.

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><p><strong>Yes, ending it there. Somewhat cliffhanger and it's landed on a comedic tone and away from the sad tone like last chapter. So I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and such.<strong>


	8. Chapter 8: Getting along

**Time to show our group adjusting to the new Hunter. Also, sorry for my late update on this. I kinda had a block... Gomensai.**

**Disclaimer: I own these OCs and been given permission for one of them.**

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><p>Brown eyes stared into the glowing yellow, soon looking back into red and periodically switching between the bioluminescent colors. After closing his eyes and feeling a headache approach, a minor side-effect from nearly having a heart attack, he managed to speak out words.<p>

"Kano... Who is he?"

Before the dirty blond infected could open his mouth and grumble some incoherent explanation, the oak brown haired Hunter took it as his own burden to explain.

"My name is Nate, I've heard so much from this little chatterbox." Rudy couldn't help but suppress a chuckle, this infected clearly had a sense of humor if he was calling Kano a chatterbox.

"Name's Rudy, um... Over there on the bed is Natalie, and he's Dave... We've been through a lot today so... I can't really promise you that we'll be lively." The survivor stood up and approached the new Hunter. He stretched his arm out for a handshake. The oak haired infected stared for a moment and soon returned the handshake, grinning like a fool when Rudy turned to wake the raven haired man. "Dave, don't freak out, but we got another sentient Hunter in the room."

The man woke up, and from hearing the news he wanted to desperately scream. Though he knew that would wake Natalie, or possibly annoy if she was already awake. So he opted to just rising from his position and scan for something that wasn't there before.

The first thing that caught his eye about Nate, was the fact that he didn't have the signature hoody that most Hunters had. Curiosity began to swirl in his mind as he wanted to know the reason for that, his mind always wanted problems and mysteries to solve. The next detail was the glowing yellow orbs that was his eyes. Again, another thing that set him apart from the majority of Hunters, their eyes would usually be a tint of red. Next detail was compared to Kano, whereas the smaller Hunter had no claws, this infected did. _'I have to make sure not to cross him...'_

"I'll wake up Natalie." The raven haired man stood up and made his way to the large bed, aware of the piercing stares on him. Dave kneeled next to the bed beside the blonde's face. He reached over to shake her shoulder ever so gently while whispering her name. "Nat... Natalie, wake up."

Soft blue eyes soon fluttered open, staring into a deep shade of green in confusion. "Dave...? What's going on?"

"We got more family..." The raven haired man pointed behind her, very lazily, the woman turned around and caught sight of a stranger. Natalie flinched when she caught noticed of the unnatural glow in his eyes, even gasping when he flashed her a toothy grin, revealing sharp canines.

"Hey." He simply replied, chuckling a bit from another flinch from her. This caused Dave to glare at the infected, already making a bad impression to the others so far. "My name is Nate."

"Natalie..."

"Dave" The raven haired man grumbled, he was fine with living with Kano, the little guy was sweet and adorable, but this Hunter seemed like a rebellious teenager to him and that was the last he wanted to deal with in the End of the World. Sensing the tension in the room, the brown haired survivor clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention for his announcement.

"I know this isn't the right time to say this, but we can't stay in this room, we have to move to some of the smaller rooms away from this one." He noticed a questionable look from the blonde woman. "With the glass door broken, infected can easily get in this room. Proof of that is that Kano and Nate made it back here. The way I see it, we're gonna have to barricade the penthouse suite."

"Man... But, it's a small price to pay for life." Dave sighed, beginning to stretch and grab what little supplies that were in the room. The others silently following his actions. After packing up, the group of five walked through the halls of the hotel and stopped at the other end of the building. They agreed to save the barricading for the next day, mainly because everyone was too emotionally exhausted from today's events.

"I think it's smarter if two of us shared a room with one being left alone in one room to themselves." The survivors stared at each other, hoping to find a proper roommate.

"If you want Nat, you can take the room by yourself." The raven haired man allowed for her to take the privacy spot.

"I don't want it, I may be a girl, but in no way am I sensitive. I did deal with Max..." She shrugged it off, the green eyed man found that he was scolding himself for the mistake.

"I'll take the solo room." The yellow eyed Hunter added. _'Seems to be the only way, what's-his-face seems to hate me, Natalie seems a bit freaked out... And I'm guessing that lil' guy is the one guy's fuck buddy...'_

"I got no argument on that." Dave chuckled to himself, but was quickly reprimanded by the blonde woman. A 'be nice' was whispered to him. Rudy noticed it from the corner of his eye, the two had quickly gotten along and it's strange how close they were acting already.

"Well it's obvious who is rooming with who now.. Sweet dreams guys." The brunette opened one of the doors and watched as the others did the same. The raven haired man holding the door for Natalie, which the blonde rolled her eyes while she waltzed in. Though he caught sight of the small infected giving the other his torn hoody.

Afterwards, the oak haired Hunter gave Kano a pat on the head and a few words of gratitude. After the small Hunter leaped into the room and curled up in the bed, the human sat at the bed, looking at the dirty blonde infected.

"Why did you give him your hoody?" Though he didn't expected a reply, it was more of to let the question pop out of his head.

"Might be cold..." Kano simply replied. As the two entered the room, the small Hunter leaped onto the bed and curled up at the edge, leaving more than enough room for the brown haired survivor to sleep in. Though sleep was calling him, Rudy couldn't help but think about Nate.

_'Kano seems to like him... Dave hates him for some reason, and Natalie wants to keep her distance.' _The man took in a deep breath and fell back onto the bed. It's mattress not being as soft and comfortable as the Penthouse's. _'If this little guy likes him, then so will I.'_

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><p>The next morning, the brunette woke up early to check on the new Hunter. The moment he opened the door, he was met with an awful stench the quickly found it's way into his nostrils. The smell hitting him like a ton of bricks.<p>

"What the hell..." He muttered, regrettably following the rank scent to find that it lead to Nate's room. Without warning the Hunter with a knock, the survivor opened the door and stared in utter shock as the infected was painting the walls with blood. Blood which came from a rotting corpse sitting in the corner of the room.

"Oh, hey." He simply greeted as he continued to paint without ever turning to who had entered.

"Why are you painting with blood?" Rudy sighed as he watched the oak haired infected turn to look at him.

"I don't got anything else to draw with, blood is the closest thing to paint right now." The brunette sighed again and even held his forehead, that technically wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"I should have asked why you even feel the need to draw..." In his disappointment, the reason he came into the room quickly coming back to his mind. "Take that body back outside, you're living with humans, they won't like the smell of a decaying carcass."

"Lemme finish this part first..." The survivor stomped his foot.

"Now, before Natalie and Dave wake up." The Hunter groaned, even swearing under his breath as he dragged the dead body out of the doorway to head towards the Penthouse, tossing the body over the side of the building. Nate looked over and counted the seconds it took for the body to hit the concrete. He laughed at the loud splatter and soon forgotten how much time the drop took.

"Well that's done." He smiled as he found that the human followed to make sure he was true to his word.

"Why are you slightly insane?" Nate grinned widely but shook his head.

"Not insane, maybe slightly OCD, but not insane." Rudy stared and found himself chuckling for some reason, he guessed he was losing his mind dealing with all these changes in such a short time.

"I have to ask, why draw in the first place?" The oak haired Hunter turned and flashed a wide grin.

"It makes me feel more human, an infected can't create art." The brunette smiled, it was small but what he just showed was a bit of hope for being an innocent human again. Despite the inhumane use of blood as paint, Nate was doing it only to keep or even further his humanity. Sure, the guy had glowing yellow eyes and claws and pale skin, but just like Kano, he had feelings. Though it was all obvious before seeing as he is able to speak in adequate enough sentences. _'So different from each other and yet so alike'_

"So, how old are you, 'cause Kano is 18." Nate blinked twice and soon had his jaw agape.

"That little guy is 18... I'm bigger than him and I'm 16!" His yelling in shock turned into a burst of laughter, one that was shared with Rudy.

"He might be small, but the little guy packs a punch, I watched him kill a Boomer in an instant." Rudy smiled and the shocked expression returned to the Hunter.

"Damn, little guy is tough as nails to do that if he doesn't have claws to kill with." The brown haired survivor even briefed him that Kano had no fangs to bite with either, which only made Nate wonder just how dangerous he was. The two leaned against the wall of the outside of the room, staring at the rising sun, which the human shielded his eyes yet the infected didn't so much as flinch at the bright light.

"Hey, how come you're not bothered by the light? Don't Hunters wear hoods because they're sensitive to the light?" The Oak haired Hunter smiled as he shut his eyes and thought for a moment.

"I guess it has to do with my eye color, I've never had trouble with the light, though I also don't have incredible night vision." The brunette thought it over for a moment, perhaps when the infection occurred to him, along with retaining a sentient mind, the mutation also changed the traits he developed. But it could only be seen as a theory. _'Eh, theories are the best we have to truth when shit hits the fan.'_

"We should head back, the others might be waking up and I don't want them to worry." Nate only nodded and followed the survivor back into the halls, tracing his claws along the wall and scratching the paint to make a meandering line.

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><p><strong>Yay, finally got done with the chapter! Now back to eating Pocky and singing Kami Manimani in English. Hope you guys found that this was worth the wait, or at least are glad it's not dead... Ahahaha... I'll just go sit in the corner now...<strong>


	9. Chapter 9: Reasons to Act As We Do

**Alright... More character development. I also just noticed that when I first introduced Natalie, I gave her steel grey eyes, and then said she had soft blue in the next... I did not catch my mistake until now, so I'm keeping her as a steel grey eyed tough chick. But the idea of this chapter came from the whole controversy of Super Smash Bros fans complaining about Samus Aran being over sexualized by having heels in her zero suit. So anyways, new chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own my cousin-in-law, this image of Dave, and Natalie. Nate belongs to a person that follows me, and Kano is a zombified version of Jin or Shizen no Teki P's character.**

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><p>Before morning arrived, the blonde woman propped herself against the wall, sighing from the dreamless sleep she had gotten. She hated how others could recount their nightly adventures as if it took no effort, while she was left wondering when she had fallen asleep only to find herself rising in the morning. The same question rising in her mind regarding what she had dreamed of.<p>

"Everything alright?" She turned her head to find the raven haired man on the opposite wall from her. Remembering the argument the night before about who should get the bed, Natalie claimed that she didn't want it if it meant that Dave would sleep on the floor. In the end, both tore the covers from the bed and slept on the ground.

"I'm fine, just annoyed..." The blonde caressed a few strands of hair that fell down to her shoulder. Green eyes widened a bit from her statement and filled with concern.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but any reason why?" She stared up at the man for a moment and soon back to her fingers that played with her hair. There wasn't much for her to explain about it, just a simple answer.

"I can't dream, for as long as I can remember sleep has been a weird time skip and eventually it gets annoying." The raven haired man stared at her for a moment and began to apologize for it, which began to anger her. "Will you quit saying sorry, you didn't even do anything."

"I'm so-Dammit, I can't help it, I was raised to give up my seat for ladies, it's hard for me." Dave groaned and began to curse his good natured intentions. It was then that he realized that this was the first he's ever been reprimanded for his gentleman instincts. Which may have been a large factor in why he couldn't get himself to stop being kind to Natalie. Although everyone has their reasons, he wondered for a moment why she was getting upset over kindness when they were in an outbreak of zombies. "And why is it bad that I'm nice to you? Shouldn't you be happy that someone is lending you a hand and not shoving you into a horde?"

"That's the whole reason! I know that there are zombies out there and I don't want to get soft!" The blonde stood up and glared down at the man, the raise in voice causing him to flinch. After realizing that she shouted at him, she decided to take a more calm approach and hope that clarity would be given. "Dave, I know you're a sweet guy and all, but I don't want to be treated nicely because I'm a girl. I need to get tough, and I can't if you keep softening blows for me."

"Nat... I don't treat you nice because you're a girl. I treat you nice because of what you've been through." The green eyed man avoided eye contact, finding the corner of the room to be very interesting. Even scratching the back of his head in a nervous manner as he continued. "You held a gun at me, despite lacking a bit common sense and not having a plan. If you noticed... I scolded you at that moment."

It was then that the blonde did realize it, Dave had argued his way to make her quit, and he still was aware that a woman was putting the gun to his head. Before she could respond, the raven haired man continued on with his explanation. "After I saw the destruction that your friend caused, I immediately thought how horrible it must have been to be around him... So I figured I could be a little sweet to you and cheer you up a bit."

His cheeks began to turn a tint of pink, being too embarrassed to look her in the eyes. "I guess it's the thought that counts, I'll give you that." The blonde woman sighed and noticed Dave's attempt to hide his face. "Dave, you alright?"

"I'm fine..." The raven haired man took in deep breaths to cool down his burning cheeks. Feeling that she should thank him for good intentions, coupled with the fact that he was hiding a blush, in a way that would give him a bit of peace. Natalie rose from her seated position and stretched out her tired limbs, eventually making her way to the raven haired man. "What are yo-"

Dave was cut off when the blonde pecked his cheek with a soft kiss, his face flushing full of blood from the sign of affection.

"Don't expect anything more, maybe when we get rescued and live a normal life, you can have a chance at that." A smile spread across Dave's lips from the thought of having a bit of a chance in his favor.

"Though I get why we shouldn't now, but this is just giving me a better reason to survive." The grey eyed woman felt a bit of a smile grow on her face. This time she was cut off by the sound of scrapping on the door. On instinct, Natalie scrambled for a weapon, grabbing the pistol she had and taking aim at the door.

"Wait!" The raven haired man stopped her from firing and called out. "Kano, is that you?" In the return of a response, a throaty 'yeah' could barely be made out. "See, it was just our little zombie, nothing dangerous... Well, he's not going to eat us, that's for sure." He gave a little chuckle and proceeded towards the door, opening it up and revealing the little Hunter. Though he didn't seem like a Hunter anymore seeing as his hood was gone and revealed his blonde curls to the world.

"He still creeps the shit out of me..." The blonde swore under her breath but did not go unnoticed.

"How can this cute face be creepy?" Dave indicated to the infected, his cheek bones being high and rounded, appearing soft aside from the scar that ran from his nose to one cheek. He tilted his head to the side which added more to Dave's point. The green eyed man even pointing out that little guy had a teddy bear.

"It's not that he's not adorable, the teddy bear by the way is really adding more to his adorableness, but it's the feeling that a cute infected like him is standing before me when I've been shooting them dead again." She felt shivers course through her body at the mention of her distress. "Didn't you and Rudy have the same thought when you first saw Kano?"

The small Hunter sat on the bed, being forgotten at the moment as the two had a discussion. "Honestly, I couldn't believe it. I thought he would kill us when the chance came, actually, we got into an argument because of it. But... Rudy told me something that really made me think differently."

Both of the survivors took a look at the blonde infected, for some reason he was playing with the straps on his boots. "He said that Kano is not human, or infected, he's just Kano."

Natalie stared at the infected, the Hunter catching wind of her stare and returning it. Red staring into grey, usually she would immediately look away and yet now she was keeping the gaze.

"Just Kano... Same can apply to the other guy, right?" She broke it to ask the question to the raven haired man, who quickly scoffed and gave a sarcastic laugh.

"He's an immature teenager, that's what I get from him." This time it was the woman's turn to question the man.

"Any reason why you don't like him, we've both only met him like yesterday." Dave turned away and faced the wall. Being stubborn with his reasoning with the hate. His next words being grumbles in an annoyed tone.

"It reminds me too much of... Bah, never mind, I don't want to talk about it." The zombie then noticed that through the doorway he noticed the brunettes walk back to their rooms. Finding that his unasked question was no longer needed, Kano left the room to return Rudy and Nate.

"Bullshit, I told you why Kano creeps me out, now tell me why Nate is annoying to you." She glared daggers at him, which the green eyed man could feel pierce into him. Dave took a deep sigh and shut the door, hoping that the others won't hear him.

"He reminds me too much of my old friends..." He walked over to the bed and fell into it.

"And that's bad?" Natalie was not getting the context of the hate for him. Hell, she was thinking that he should actually warm up to him if he reminded him of old friends.

"He's too carefree like Keith, and that smile is too much like Ellis'... I miss them... But God Dammit, those two could be dead right now." His voice was beginning to pick up in volume. Natalie was beginning to get interested in all this, even more than before.

"Were they not rescued?" She asked, concern for the story. He fell back into the bed and sighed deeply before running a hand in his hair. "Ellis... I'm not even sure, he was running late and I got lost in the crowd, losing Keith. But that bastard did get in a helicopter... But I heard his chopper crashed shortly after."

"I'm sorry to hear that..."

The raven haired man looked over at the blonde, facial expression being blank. "Keith can be alive, he's cheated death more times than I sigh in disappointment." Natalie couldn't tell if the joke was forced or truthful. She expected that it was a little of both. "But it pisses me off seeing Nate, that same relaxed nature was or possibly will be the fall of my friends..."

"So it's not really hate towards him, but hatred towards his personality because it's too much alike to your old friend's, and it's uh... Guilt tripping you...?" She asked rather than explained to the raven haired man. His eyes going wide at the last few words.

"A guilt trip... I guess..." He agreed peacefully, his mind beginning to connect most of the dots only making the blonde's words more true. He didn't hate the personality, he hated the reminder of what he could have prevented.

Before he could get lost in his thoughts, knocking caused both of the survivors to jump and listen in on Rudy's calling.

"We're bored, so any of you want to play a game?"

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><p><strong>Sorry for the wait. But blocks can be a bitch sometimes. Anyways, I have something mischievous planned next chapter... Mwahahahaha! Ahem, anyways, hope you enjoyed it.<strong>


	10. Chapter 10: What's Your Dirty Secret?

**OHHOLYCRAPIMSOSORRYTHISTOOKAWHILETHISISTHEFASTESTAPOLOGYIEVERHADTOSAY!**

***gasping for air* Yeah... Sorry, took my time with this chapter. Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you for all loving this story.**

**Also. Dear Nameless Guest, I shall draw that family portrait... Challenge Accepted! Also, I thank the MTV show Awkward for this chapter idea. Oh Tamara, you and your... Personality make me laugh.**

**Disclaimer: I own this dysfunctional make-shift family!**

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><p>The group had entered into the brunette and small infected's room, each noticing that a bowl, pencils, and paper were lying on the bed. Concerned about the objects, the blonde woman spoke out.<p>

"So what game are we playing...?" Upon seeing the writing utensils and paper, Nate had leaped in at the opportunity.

"Bad Nate! We have to share!" The brunette began to scold the yellow eyed hunter, Dave chuckled to himself about the irony. The infected that could speak sentences scolded as if he were a puppy. "I figured since we're going to get to know each other, we should share things in a fun game."

The others stared at him questionably, confused why they needed paper and pencils if they could just tell each other their backgrounds. "What is this game called?"

Rudy grinned with a blush on his face. "What's Your Dirty Secret. We all write something we never told anyone, we mix them up in the bowl and then read each and try to figure out whose it is." Natalie shrugged her shoulders after hearing the game rules.

"Eh, I'll bite, I've had my share of teenage slumber party games like this." The blonde smiled a bit as she took one of the pieces of paper and pencil, sitting down on the bed as she wrote down her secret.

"Can't let her be the only one." Dave chuckled and dove into the game. Resting his back against the bed beside the young woman. Soon everyone had their secrets thought out and written down, only now the brunette shuffled the papers in the bowl and smiled as he pulled the first one out.

"Alright, let's see... 'My best friends kissed me as a joke when they were drunk'..." He paused for a moment and looked at Natalie, her face expressed shock that he assumed it was her.

"Pervert, not mine." She shook her head and looked around the room, noticing a blushing Dave with a pout. "Dave, it was you?"

"T-They do a lot of stupid shit when they're drunk! One time they even-" Before the raven haired man could finish his explanation, the blonde started to pet him.

"It's ok, we all have those moments were we question our sexuality." The young man flushed full red before pulling another paper out of the bowl, ignoring the hoarse laughter that came from the others.

He cleared his throat before reading it out loud. "My friend chopped down my door with a chainsaw because I called her cute... My thoughts run to you." The green-eyed man stared at the oak-haired hunter, Nate fell over and sighed deeply.

"Sorry, don't know any girls with chainsaws." The others looked around and watched curiously as Kano raised his hand. "Wow... Didn't take him to be the flirty type."

Rudy still tilted his head and stared at the ceiling, trying to put the image into an actual live action scene. "What kind of girl uses a chainsaw after being called cute...?"

"Su... Tsu... T-s... Tsubomi K-Ki-do..." The others stared at him for the longest time, not sure if what he had said was actually a word or not. And with their limited resources, Googling it was not an option. Though they did find it amusing how he struggled to say words, it just added on to his harmless and adorable factor. As if to avoid the awkward silence, the small Hunter reached for the bowl and pulled out another piece of paper. The paper was immediately taken and read by Rudy, knowing that they would be waiting forever before Kano could speak the first three words.

"I played with matches as a kid and still do to this day." Yet again, the raven haired man shot a glare at the yellow eyed infected.

"Why do you always assume it's me?" Nate asked while putting up his hands in defense, though it could be taken as offense seeing as he had claws. It really depended on the view on him.

"Because it sounds like something a hoodlum would do." Dave replied coldly, sounding almost as a disappointed father scolding his children. A sarcastic clap came in response to the possible pun to the Hunter.

"Well, it's not mine, again." Nate soon crossed his arms and turned away from the green-eyed survivor. Said man sighed and began to reprimand whoever secret it was.

"Honestly, this is how you know someone grew up and became a horrible person, someone without manners and common sense."

"Get off the soap box Dave, it's mine." The blonde woman confessed with no hint of shame for it. Dave gasped and stared wide-eyed at Natalie, her face being the usual stoic and calm demeanor. The kind of face that knew that their habit was wrong but didn't care for consequence. "Just because someone likes to do bad things, doesn't mean they're a bad person."

"But you're a pyro! That means you like to burn things just for the hell of it, how is that any good?" The woman sighed before she began to get into an argument with the green-eyed man. The other three just watching the moment with curious eyes and open ears. It was incredibly fun to watch the two go back and forth and bicker like an old couple.

"I was having fun with it."

"Some serial killers enjoy chopping up people, and yet they still go to jail."

"... Keep it up and I'll light that bed on fire..." She growled under her breath, which surprisingly went unnoticed by the others. "Alright, next one, only two left so that leaves only you two." The blonde announced and pointed at the oak haired hunter and brunette survivor. Out of the two, Nate reached into the bowl and pulled out one of the remaining papers.

"I once tried to launch myself over a fence with a home-made catapult which only flung me against the wall... Now that is some Wile E Coyote shit. Did an anvil fall on you afterwards?" The yellow eyed Hunter chuckled as he looked over at the survivor beside him. Rudy felt his skin burn from embarrassment, the childhood show and memory.

"No, but to be fair, I wanted to be like Wile E Coyote, so in a way the accident only made it true to the source." Everyone was able to share a laugh, almost forgetting about the tension that was there earlier. He smiled as he picked up the last piece of paper. "Alright Nate... You... Once spray painted your face by accident?" The others had a tough time suppressing their laughter as they imagined the event. The oak haired Hunter flushed in embarrassment and turned away.

"It was my first time using spray paint!" Nate protested, eventually the others managed to calm themselves down and soon a personal question arose.

"So... What was your lives before the outbreak?"

All in the room grew silent as the thought of the zombies outside the walls back to their minds. With the little joy and safety they had found at the moment, they had almost completely overlooked the outbreak, even forgetting for a moment that two sentient Hunters were in the room.

"No one wants to share...?" The raven haired man asked while looking around the room. Feeling as though he needed to get the ball rolling, the green eye man decided to share his past. "Fine, I'll go first. I lived in a nice two-story house with my childhood friends as my roommates. We all worked together in a garage and even had a band. Although my friends were idiots and immature, I still loved it."

"How does a mature guy like you end up with friends like that?" The Yellow eyed infected asked, voice actually full of concern than his usual jeer.

"That's a story for another time... Anyone else want to share?" Dave looked around and noticed that the brunette was getting ready to speak.

"I lived in California, had a nice girlfriend who was sweet enough to get me a plane ticket, concert ticket, and backstage pass for the Midnight Riders, you can probably tell what happened after that." The young man rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "I heard that the West Coast is free of Infection."

"Hopefully..." The raven-haired man added, holding as much hope as the others did.

"It probably is, CEDA and the Army might be working together to keep it infection free." The blonde put in her point of view, having full faith that there would be a chance at a free zone.

"Fuck CEDA..." Nate simply swore under his breath. "Anyone that so much as look sickly, is getting left and neglected by them." The Yellow-eyed zombie seemed to have justification for his hatred against the organization that sought to help survivors. The others stared at him from hearing his knowledge about CEDA.

"Well, clearly they were right to leave you, you are a Hunter." Dave tried to reason with him, always seeming to take the side against him. Natalie shook her head as she dreaded a fight between the two that would ensue.

"Yeah, I had the Green Flu, but none of the others did..." The oak-haired Hunter crossed his arms, the memory of that scene disgusted him to no end. At the time, Nate thought it was his end so he had cursed CEDA for being cruel, yet luck allowed him a second chance. Nothing could erase his hatred for that organization, no matter how much good they intended.

"Well... I'm sure you understand that they meant to protect those that were healthy enough." At this point, Dave only spewed positive facts, almost as if he would never accept CEDA for being wrong.

"They were kids, Dave, no older than me." The others couldn't help but shiver from the thought of the loss of children through blind selfish desire to survive.

"Let's not talk too much about this..." The brunette advised, knowing the subject would only bring a bit of sadness and tension among everyone. "So what about you, Nat?"

"Me...?" The blonde thought for a moment about were to begin with her explanation. "Lived in a nice family, though parents favored my little sister over me."

"Why, you're great as you are." The green-eyed man asked, though she did have her flaws much like the arsonist behavior, Dave still liked how she handled herself.

"My father was extremely old-fashioned, thought women were all delicate and wanted to shelter me and my sister." The young woman sighed as she stretched her limbs. "My sis didn't mind, but I did."

"Wow... He wanted to protect you, and then you ended up burning things for fun." Dave added, the others laughed at the little irony. Even Dave laughed along with them. With the tension relieved once again, yet for how long would it stay away?

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><p><strong>I apologize for taking my sweet ass time on the chapter. I actually had it half written one week... Then kinda added like five words to it each day... I wouldn't say it was writer's block, because I knew how the chapter would go. So possibly laziness. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.<strong>

**Happy Thanksgiving! Now have a great day.**

**Or so help me, I will find you and kick you a-**


	11. Chapter 11: Insanity or Casual?

**Ok funny story time!**

**So during Christmas, my sis-in-law's family was doing a secret Santa thing, and my brother just so happen to get Rudy... So as a joke, he took a present for him, a nice new guitar strap, and two cases of cookies in round boxes. So he wraps each of them, and taped them together in the shape of the male genitalia. I couldn't stop laughing when he told me the idea and actually went through with it. In a way, Rudy got a dick for Christmas!**

**Disclaimer: I could make a Valve can't count to three joke, but that's been done like more than two times.**

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><p>A full business week had passed since the small group of survivors and infected settled into their new rooms. After barricading the penthouse door with a vending machine as well as various heavy objects, the following days seemed uneventful. Each member of the hotel group soon fell into a rut of their own little routines.<p>

Whenever the small Hunter wasn't jumping around the building, Kano usually spent his time relaxing at the foot of Rudy's bed, whether said man was in the room or not. Whereas his human roommate would pass the time by playing the guitar, or neglecting the workout purposes and slacking off. Yet no one scolded him for being lazy.

Nate divided his days with two past times that were separate but equal. One half would be remaining cloistered in his own room and scrapping the walls to draw on them, the noise being much of an annoyance to the raven-haired man. The other half however, was any activity to annoy the aforementioned survivor. Although at first Dave would be angered by the oak-haired Hunter's persistence of being a thorn at his side, the outburst slowly became few in number to the point that Dave began to chuckle at Nate's attempts.

However, the only woman of the group found it very difficult to do anything worthwhile in the hotel. After the first two days she already had gotten sick of the nearly quiet ambience that is the empty hotel. If there was one thing she hated, it was being cooped up for too long.

"Guys I have a crazy idea, and please hear me out." Natalie began after she gathered all the others. Dave tried to ready himself for the worst, knowing that nothing good could benefit from a crazy idea.

"Sure, go right ahead and explain." The brunette allowed for her to elaborate her idea, Nat already had his ok no matter what the idea was. He's not a leader, nor does he have to make everyone's decisions.

"I want to go out on a supply run." The blonde spoke out with full confidence, determined to step outside the fortifications and gather things that could aid in their survival as well as increase moral.

"Are you craz-" The green-eyed man began before Rudy added his comment.

"Fine with me, but take Nate." As much as Dave wanted to argue against it, a few moments with the room to himself and having the oak-haired Hunter away did sound great.

Upon hearing his name, the Yellow-eyed Hunter jumped from surprise, though he had no misgivings about the idea. He figured that with some of the infected outside, he could easily maim them and use the buildings as his canvas. The two scouters stared at each other for a moment before smiling.

"You ready to go?"

"Of course I am." Preparations were soon set into motion, Natalie taking with her old pistol as well as a baseball bat Rudy had found lying around. Nate, given his infection was more than prepared for the small little supply run.

"Here's how things will go, stay close to me at all times, don't pull anything funny or a bullet might hit you in between the eyes. That means no little pranks on me." The steel grey-eyed woman warned, yet it felt more as a threat coming from her serious tone.

"Fine, fine, but if we're running from a horde of zombies, I'm tripping you." The Hunter replied as he easily moved the vending out of the doorway, giving it enough room for the two to squeeze through.

"Funny, I was about to say the same to you, 'sides, are you even sure the other infected want to tear you apart? You kinda already are one of them." The question did bother her a bit, it could make a huge difference in this situation. Nate only shrugged his shoulders, truth be told, he didn't even know. He always killed a zombie immediately, never even taking the chance if they would strike him back or not.

"I do know one thing, those Tanks don't care for human or infected, they just want to smash shit."

The streets seemed completely empty, save for a few infected that would walk in strange and oblong directions with no particular interest in them. The blonde survivor decided to stick to paths that carried the most cars, to ensure that she would always have a cover to hide behind. While Natalie decided to stay covert and go on with stealth, Nate found this moment to test the already infected theory as he briskly walked without a care in the world. So far nothing had took an interest in him, A zombie even brushed past him and nothing resulted from it.

Giving a toothy smile with a thumbs up in the blonde's direction, Natalie could only nod in the confirmation of their earlier theory. With that nonsense done with, the two continued on with their search. So far every store seemed barren of any goods, not even useless junk were left on the shelves of the stores.

"Fuck, nothing good..." The Blonde cursed as she strode down the empty aisles, hoping for some leftovers. She shook her head in disappointment, Natalie at least wanted something to bring back.

"At least they left the crayons." The Oak-haired Hunter stated as he walked up to the survivor with his arms filled with said coloring tools. _'Well at least he found something...'_

The young woman sighed as she began to exit the store with the Hunter following closely behind her. Fortunately for her, the infected in the area had cleared out to another location, wherever they were, she did not care as long as they remained out of the way.

Given the moment to relax, Natalie took in breath of air. Her nostrils flared after realizing the mistake of doing so, the scent of decay was too rich in the air.

"Damn this infection..." She cursed the Green Flu, anything that took away the fresh scent of the air deserves all the negativity it gets. "So Nate, know any other place that's worth checking out?" The blonde survivor figured that the oak-haired infected had explored the city before.

"There's this convention nearby, I remember seeing swords there." A smile spread across the young woman's face as she thought of exchanging her baseball bat for a long blade.

"Wait, why didn't you take a sword?" In response to the question, the young Hunter dropped his art supplies and held up his hands to reveal the claws. "Oh yeah, claws..."

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><p>"Royal Flush." The raven-haired man bluntly stated as he revealed his cards, if they were playing on a table and not the floor, the brunette would have flipped the table in rage.<p>

"How lucky are you going to get!?" Rudy shouted in frustration, ever since they began their game, Dave had gotten nothing but several hands to trump him with. It was safe to say that Lady Luck was not on his side.

"Fine, I'm done, no point in playing if I'm always going to win." The raven-haired man tossed the cards to the side and rose from his seated position.

"Thank you, I hate this game now..." The brunette grumbled as he looked at the scattered cards, cursing both his luck and the game for his awful experience. "So what's up with you? It's been over an hour since they left and you haven't said a peep about it."

Rudy brought up the strangely quiet state that Dave was in. He had at least expected him to cave in and worry within the first ten minutes. The young man feel back into the bed and yawned before answering. "I'm not worried."

"Not a tiny bit?" Rudy crossed his arms and stared down at the man, skeptical that he managed to stay positive.

"Nope, she threatened to knock me out if I worried about her." It was then that the brunette Survivor snapped his fingers, having his own little 'ah ha' moment. After laying back for a moment, the raven-haired man noticed the absence of a certain small Infected. "By the way, where's Kano?"

"Huh? Oh he's at the entrance, I put him on guard duty." Rudy briefly explained before gathering up the scattered deck of cards, soon making a house of cards with them.

"Oh, guess that's the smart thing to do..." Dave replied, dozing off a bit.

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><p>"Dumbass, these swords aren't real." The blonde sighed deeply as she demonstrate how safe and fake the blades were by testing them on her own skin. Dragging the fake blade across her arm, it left nothing more than a faint scratch. She stared down at the Hunter, blaming him for getting her hopes up for a stronger weapon only to find that there are none.<p>

"I swear, some of them are, we just have to keep looking." The young woman rolled her eyes and kept herself alert to the surroundings. Nate sighed and began to leap around the place, keeping both an eye out for the swords he mentioned and if there were any stray infected.

"Shit..." The Hunter's eyes widen as they caught sight of a hulking figure, the second he clung to the wall to observe the figure. "Oh, it's dead..." Nate couldn't help but chuckle at his luck. He nearly screamed from the thought of fighting a Tank on his own. However, after closer inspection, the fell Tank had many wounds lacing it's body as well as a few swords sticking out of it's body. _'Jackpot!'_

After scanning the area from his perch for zombies, finding the coast to be clear the oak-haired infected called out for the blonde. "Nat! Wanna see something funny!?"

The young woman stopped in her search to look up at the Hunter that clung to wall like a spider. She grumbled, thinking that he had gotten bored from the search and abandoned it.

"Does this face look like I give a fuck?!" Natalie yelled back, keeping a stoic face as she watched the Infected struggle to stay up from his laughter. He had to admit, that comeback was hysterical.

"I promise, it's good, just keep going to the left, you'll known when you see it!" Wanting to see the reaction on her face, Nate pushed himself off the wall and propelled himself to the dead Tank. A grin made it's way at his face as the sound of the woman approaching. When Natalie rounded the corner to find the Tank, surprised overwhelmed her. So much, that she pulled her pistol and fired a round into the mass of muscle.

"Hah, relax, it's dead already." The Hunter laughed at the overreaction, though he was glad he took the precaution of steering clear out of the line of fire. "And found the swords, now claim your Excalibur and pull it free from it's stone."

The blonde woman shook her head, allowing herself to calm down and approach the dead carcass. "Well, I'm no King Arthur..." She stated while she grabbed the hilt of the blade. "But by freeing this blade... I'll take up the name of a Blade Lord and serve to protect those that cannot help-I don't even know why I'm saying this shit." Interrupting her own little show, Natalie sighed as she placed a foot on the body to giver herself leverage, and pulled the blade out of the Tank.

A shiver ran down her spine as the blade remained stained with the blood of the infected. After wiping it clean with a nearby table cloth, the two inspected the blade. Finding it to be a curved sabre with an amber color. The infected whistled as he marveled the blade.

"I guess this is a good thing to take back as anything." Nate smiled as the Survivor nodded in agreement with him.

"Off we go, back to our homeland with the spoils-Fuck! I'm doing it again..." The blonde couldn't understand why she kept speaking in monologues. Nate couldn't help but burst into laughter from all the strange shenanigans.

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><p><strong>Sorry guys, facing a few technical difficulties with my laptop... It somehow operates just fine without a working battery. And says that the battery isn't there, when it clearly is. Anyways, forgive me for the wait. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12: Stories and Bloodshed

**Do not fear random guest, my story is very much alive, it just takes me a while to update. ^-^"**

**I would never abandon a story... Just have really long hiatuses for most. Also to Random Girl, I have three useful pieces of information to tell you.**

**1: Great that you like the story, but you're not exactly telling me what you liked about it. Caps Abuse does not help your case.**

**2: 50 chapters? Yeah no, if I aimed to do that, it would be more of the destination rather than a journey. Not to mention that it would change the story into something long and convoluted that won't even be recognizable as my original story.**

**3: I don't like to repeat myself... Course you could always just re-read the above statements, but people would get what I mean.**

**Disclaimer: This Disclaimer will explode in three... Two... One... Thank you for your time. Cookie?**

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><p>"Do you even know how to use a sword?" The Yellow eyed Hunter asked as he observed how the woman held onto her new weapon with little care or grace.<p>

"It's just a weapon you cut things with, no one is going to argue with me if I 'use' it wrong." The blonde fired back, not giving two shits about showmanship and more about the damage and protection the sword would provide.

"You cannot have a badass looking blade like that and just use it as a flashy-looking chopping weapon." A sigh escaped the blonde's lips as the conversation continued. Scrambling through her mind for a valid reason to prove Nate wrong, the young woman decided to go the sarcastic route.

"You're right, I should hop on down to a dojo and find someone to teach me in the arts of the blade." The dead silence of the area spoke more loudly than anything the Hunter could reply with. After a few minutes of walking, Nate had found his voice to ask one last question.

"Was the sarcasm necessary?" For about the fiftieth time that day, the Survivor sighed deeply, knowing on the inside that there would be more to come. Choosing to shake off the question and continue walking the blazing streets, Natalie kept wary of a few Common Infected that stood on the sides of the streets. Deciding to prove a point to the Hunter, the grey eyed woman whistled out to the nearby infected. Their heads turned as they grew curious of the source of the noise.

The first to dash at them was immediately met with the edge of the blade through their stomach. The blade having little to no resistance as it plunged deep into the gullet of the infected. Surprised by just how sharp the blade truly was, the blonde couldn't help but think she should be a bit more careful with it.

Beside her the Oak-haired Hunter sighed as he approached the next infected. Nate held his chin in thought as he tried to think of a way to end it quick with the messiest result possible. Stepping to the side of the wobbling infected, the Hunter reached over with his claws to dig into its neck, pinching the jugular vein as he tore through the rotten meat of the infected, also making sure to snap its neck for added assurance.

The Common fell over, limp and lifeless while the blood slowly pooled around it's body. Nate looked over for a moment to find that the blonde was distracted with another infected, giving him a chance to dip his fingers into the small pool, afterwards he approached the side of a building. The Oak-haired infected began to hum to himself as he used his drenched fingers to tag the wall with a small, yet very noticeable, signature. The letters of his name becoming connected for a bit with a slash through the middle to fully form the letters into their proper capitalized form.

"Mind explaining why you're doing that?" Natalie questioned as she straddled the blade on his shoulder and stared at Nate's new work. Although she found the design and creativity to be nice, there was hardly any point for the Hunter to tag public property at a time like this. It was not as if anyone else could admire his work, or cause ire for those that saw it as defacing a public area.

"It might come in handy later." Nate vaguely replied, wiping the rest of the leftover blood on the wall to leave a hand print on it's surface. The blonde arched an eyebrow, hoping her body language would tell that she wanted an explanation, however the Hunter shrugged her off and continued to walk back to the hotel.

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><p>"So..." The raven-haired man spoke under his breath, for nearly two hours he and the brunette had done nothing but sit in awkward silence. It had just happened, neither of the two spoke out to have a conversation, nor did they try to engage in any other activity to pass the time.<p>

Dave had broken the silence in hopes of creating more ambience, just to have something to grab his attention. As much as he would regret to admit, he was missing the company of the Oak-haired Hunter. Despite having such a slow, peaceful, and stable environment to live in, it was nice to have a little distraction to liven it up.

A grin made it's way across Rudy's face as he found a way to kick his boredom to the curb. "No need to explain, I know everything about your crush."

A blush spread across Dave's face as he struggled to keep himself from lashing out at the brunette. He had already heard enough teasing from Nate and Natalie herself, having all three teasing him about it was the last thing he wanted. Maintaining a calm composure, Dave decided to brush it off as common knowledge, putting up a façade that he didn't care.

"Your point?" The green-eyed man looked over, finding that the brunette sat up on the bed with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"You're worried that Nate might get hurt,"

All amusement drained from the Raven-haired man's face as he rose from his seat and proceeded to leave the room. Choosing to leave the conversation altogether and make the brunette sit in boredom as punishment for the bad joke. "You're not denying it!" Rudy called out just as the door closed.

Figuring he needed some response to give to the other man, Dave opened the door wide enough for his hand to slip through and promptly flipped him off.

Laughter erupted from the room as the Raven-haired man stormed off in the direction of the stairs. _'At least Kano won't pull any shit like that.'_

* * *

><p>"No."<p>

"Please?"

"No!"

For nearly ten minutes straight, Nate relentlessly assaulted the blonde survivor with begging. Natalie had reached her breaking point long before the Hunter began, however she felt that she shouldn't punch the Special Infected over small little things.

"Why not?" He whined, pouting a bit as he stared at the crimson that stained the surface of the amber blade. He admired the craftsmanship to be an excellent work of art, added with the fact that it was a weapon and collecting blood, Nate couldn't help but see it as a giant, lethal paintbrush. He could vaguely remember someone saying that every strike of a sword is like painting on a canvass, you cannot erase a single stroke and must work fluidly to paint the picture.

"You can defend yourself without it, I, on the other hand, need it." To express how important her point was, Natalie decided to add a light bop to the head in hopes of literally beating the lesson into Nate. In retaliation to the scolding, the Hunter dragged his fingers along the surface of the blade and smeared blood on the blonde's cheek.

Her eyes widened as she felt the wet substance stain her face, soon sharpening to glare down at the Yellow-eyed infected. The intensity of the glare nearly forced a hole through the Hunter's skull, causing a great amount of unease to spread through his mind. "Oh you're dead, bitch..." The words seeped out of her lips like venom, seemingly causing temporary paralysis in the infected boy.

"S-sorry, let me get that for you..." Attempting to soften his punishment, the Oak-haired Hunter began to wipe off the blood with the clean end of his thumb, being incredibly cautious to not anger Natalie any further and trying not to cut her. "All gone! Actually, it looked rather nice on you,"

Taking back the damage control that he had went through, the Hunter reapplied the blood to her cheek. A small sigh was the only response Nate had gotten from the blonde survivor, her facial expression remaining the same. "Oh wait, but it's infected blood,"

As another last minute decision, the Hunter decided to nullify his earlier statement and proceeded to wipe the blood off again. "Though you should bathe in the blood of your enemies," In an instant, the thumb streaked across her face and left a mark of crimson yet again, all due to the Hunter's indecisive moment that was beginning to seem like yet another one of his pranks.

* * *

><p>"Kano? Ya in here, buddy?" The Raven-haired man called out as he entered the lobby to the Hotel. Although the infected was busy keeping an eye on the opening at the door, he gave the survivor a growl in response.<p>

The Survivor turned his head to find the small Hunter crouching in the corner, as if waiting for something to come through the entrance to tear it apart. After further inspection, the few bloodstains on the floor and on the infected's face gave away that an unfortunate few have tried to enter the Hotel.

"Uh... Now a bad time...?" The infected shrugged his shoulders, it was not like having the Survivor there would make defending a small opening harder. From what Kano could assume, Dave may be stronger than most men considering he was one of the few Survivors that was roaming the city.

Though after careful examination, the Hunter could see that the Raven-haired man kept a blunt plank of wood with him just in case. Taking a seat beside the Hunter, Dave sighed as he leaned back against the wall. "How are you, buddy?"

Kano scratched the back of his head as he thought about how he could express his feelings in the simplest way possible.

"Bored." A chuckle escaped the Survivor's throat as the raspy noise hit his ear. It was amusing that the little infected, gifted with incredible strength and agility, would be bored even after doing away with some Common Infected.

"I can see that, you're so bored that it killed you," Although the dirty blonde Hunter shook his head from disappointment, the grin that spread on his face suggested that Kano still found joy in the pun. "Anyways, since you're bored, you want to hear a story?"

Looking over to find that the Hunter nodded his head in affirmation, Dave smiled as the memories of his little story came flooding back in a large wave of nostalgia.

"Have you ever heard of a runaway-bride?" The green-eyed man asked in order to know whether to transition into the tale with an explanation or not. The Special Infected shook his head, this being the first he had ever heard of the term. "Sometimes when a couple arrange to get married, the Bride gets nervous and questions if she made the right decision, in the end, she ends up running away from her own wedding,"

Kano tilted his head in intrigue as he began to think what the story would have to do with a runaway-bride, "But what I'm about to tell you isn't about a Bride, it's actually how a Groom ran away from his wedding. One of my best friends, Keith, was going to get married about two years ago,"

The infected tried to image a situation where a Groom would want to leave a relationship just short of being united in marriage. Most of the scenarios consisted of a unfaithful boyfriend, but Kano felt he shouldn't make that assumption given he has yet to hear the full story.

"It started out as a typical love-at-first sight thing, they had a nice relationship at first," The Raven-haired man paused for a moment to let out a repressed laugh as he remembered the following events. "Turns out the Father-in-law had a tradition to scare off suitors and boyfriends by doing a fake Shotgun Wedding."

"Uh-wah...?" The small Hunter interrupted, confused on yet another term he was unfamiliar with. Given that he explained two different slangs, Dave was beginning to believe that Kano came from somewhere foreign. It would have explained the strange name, but only further shroud the infected's background.

"Down here in the South, sometimes the father of a woman will get pissed at her boyfriend for walking out or something, and hold a shotgun to their head forcing them to propose. Hence why they call it a Shotgun Wedding. But this Father did it because he wanted to scare my friend away... Did not expect him to actually go through with it."

"Wow." Was all the Hunter had responded with. Dave only laughed and continued on with the story.

"Anyways, Keith then had a bit of a revelation that he loved someone else. But unfortunately, he found out around the Wedding, the Father was an ass and didn't allow Keith's family and friends to come, so I don't know the details of how it went."

Dave looked over at the Hunter to find a large toothy grin staring at him. Although an infected revealing its teeth isn't always a pretty sign, Kano still managed to pull off being an adorable zombie. The Survivor returned the smile and gave the infected a pat on the head, ruffling the little guy's messy curls.

* * *

><p><strong>I did it, I finally updated!<strong>

**But my above mini-rant still stands. As writers, we like hearing that people enjoyed reading our works. But sometimes, we want to improve on that work so we don't disappoint anyone. Which is why I crave criticism and knowledge of what people enjoyed about my work. It let's me know what I'm doing right, and what I need improvement on.**

**With that aside, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for the wait!**


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